20:1–3 The Naamathite speaks again. Has he listened to Job? Might Job be right? Will he ask Job clarifying questions to make sure he has the facts straight? No. No. No. He thinks. Indeed, he thinks. He is a theologian. Theologians think for a living. “Therefore,” he starts, “my thoughts . . .” (v. 2). Do we want to hear his thoughts? Job does not. Job wants to hear from God. Zophar is troubled though. Distraught. Disturbed by Job’s persistence and obvious ignorance. He must teach his troubled but confused friend. Zophar’s inspired “understanding” (v. 3)99 must take the higher ground—high above Job’s “insults” (v. 3; cf. 19:2, 28–29).

20:4–11 To Job’s bold attestation to the three friends—“know [yadaʻ] then that God has put me in the wrong” (19:6)—Zophar replies: “Do you not know [yadaʻ] this from of old, since man was placed on earth, that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?” (20:4–5).100 Zophar’s thesis here is clear: Any honor and happiness that the ungodly man might experience is like a candle burning in the wind (cf. Job’s analogy in 21:18). Zophar elaborates on this thesis with further illustrations of the short-lived joys of the wicked. We might take back the high commendation we made about Bildad’s poetry, for Zophar’s lines soar higher!

    Though his height mount up to the heavens,

    and his head reach to the clouds,

    he will perish forever like his own dung;

    those who have seen him will say, “Where is he?” (20:6–7)

These verses describe the brevity of the wicked man’s honor and reputation. Even if a wicked man somehow obtains success in this life (“his height mount up to the heavens”/“his head reach to the clouds”; v. 6), he is eventually like dung sitting on a sulfur sidewalk: he will dissolve into the dirt (cf. v. 7). Verses 8–11 further embellish this theme. The question “Where is he?” (v. 7b) lingers. He is nowhere to be found. He is like “a dream”/“a vision of the night,” and his achievements surreal: they “fly away”/“[are] chased away” (v. 8; cf. Prov. 23:5). All that he had and was is gone. The dream is over; reality sets in. “Where is he?” (Job 20:7b). Nowhere. Gone. He goes unnoticed even by his own household:

    The eye that saw him will see him no more,

    nor will his place any more behold him. (v. 9)

The judgment is not over. Next, his iniquity is visited upon his offspring (cf. Ex. 20:5). His children become poorer than the poor. They must beg from the destitute for sustenance (“his children will seek the favor of the poor”) because their father had to return all of his exploited earnings (“his hands will give back his wealth”; Job 20:10). Though he might seem healthy at the moment (his “bones are full of . . . youthful vigor”), such vigor will vanish at his sudden death (“but it will lie down with him in the dust”; v. 11).

Verses 4–11 are cruel cuts into Job. In one day, Job went from the penthouse to the poorhouse and his children from a lively party to nailed coffins. But is Zophar right? “Pride” does go “before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18), but has “the greatest of all the people of the east” (Job 1:3) fallen into such disgrace due to arrogance or some other sin? We know the answer. Job does too. But Zophar is still blind, and in his blindness he continues his barrage of true statements falsely applied.

20:12–19 While “evil” is mentioned in verse 12, the only specific stated sin comes in verse 19: “he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.” The picture we might envision, which is close to what Zophar sees, is that of a real estate mogul who has pushed out the poor for profit. He buys low and sells high, leaving his neighbor high and dry. Ah, but as Proverbs says, so too does Zophar: “Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, . . . will only come to poverty” (Prov. 22:16; cf. Job 20:21, 28). More than that, this “whoever” (Job!) will eat his losses first.

Eating is the main metaphor of Job 20:12–29, with terms such as “sweet in his mouth” (v. 12a), “under his tongue” (v. 12b), “in his mouth (v. 13b), “food . . . in his stomach” (v. 14a), “swallows” (v. 15a), “vomits” (v. 15a), “belly” (v. 15b), “suck” (v. 16a), “tongue” (v. 16b), “honey and curds” (v. 17b), “fruit” (v. 18a), and “swallow” (v. 18b). The overall image is disgusting: the wicked man is destroyed by his own appetite for evil. Put differently, his own evil eats him alive. First, the man sits down to enjoy a delicacy. While it is “sweet in his mouth”—so sweet that he savors it “under his tongue” and “holds it in his mouth”—he is actually eating “evil” (vv. 12–13). Then, what he is “loath to let . . . go” will now not let go of him (v. 13a). The “food” in “his stomach” turns to wormwood (v. 14a); it is like “the venom of cobras within him” (v. 14b). What he has swallowed down are those ill-gained “riches” (v. 15a; cf. vv. 18d–19; see also 1 Tim. 6:10). He “vomits them up again” (Job 20:15a). This is one perspective on the scene; the other is God’s, who also has his hand in the mess: “God casts them out of his belly” (v. 15b). The image, of course, is not of a spew of the stew on the table; rather, it is of the wicked man’s wealth being taken from him (cf. v. 10).

Verses 16–18 continue with both the food metaphors and the theme of the consequences for the wicked man’s wickedness. Instead of the “delicious but deadly food” of verses 12–15,101 the cuisine of verse 16 is repulsive:

    He will suck the poison of cobras;

    the tongue of a viper will kill him. (v. 16)

This venomous meal is his last meal. No more picnics along the riverbank (“he will not look upon the rivers”), with delicious delights to feast upon (“honey and curds”; v. 17). No more fine wines to sip. It is payback time!

    He will give back the fruit of his toil

    and will not swallow it down;

    from the profit of his trading

    he will get no enjoyment. (v. 18)

The joys of this wealthy wicked man were short-lived.

20:20–29 While Zophar continues with more of his digestion metaphors (“no contentment in his belly,” v. 20a; “nothing left after he had eaten,” v. 21a; “fill his belly to the full,” v. 23a) and adds military ones (“an iron weapon,” v. 24a; “a bronze arrow,” v. 24b), three main points are made here. The first two have been made already: first, the joys of the wicked are temporary; second, the prosperity of the wicked will not endure. The first point appears to be made in verse 20:

    Because he knew no contentment in his belly,

    he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

The sense of this verse is difficult. It perhaps means that his “greed will lead to cravings that cannot be satisfied,”102 or, in the words of Isaiah 48:22, “There is no peace . . . for the wicked.” The second point is made in Job 20:21, 28. After the wicked man indulged in his ill-gotten gains, “there was nothing left after he had eaten” (v. 21a). Put less metaphorically, “his prosperity will not endure” (v. 21b).

    The possessions of his house will be carried away,

    dragged off in the day of God’s wrath. (v. 28)

The phrase “God’s wrath” introduces us to the third point found in these final verses, namely, that God will strike the wicked man’s body and soul before he dies. While people will attack him (“the hand of everyone in misery will come against him”; v. 22b) and all creation testify against him (“the heavens . . . and the earth will rise up against him”; v. 27), the enemy to fear most is God. When the wicked man is resting at ease with a full stomach (“in the fullness of his sufficiency,” v. 22a; “fill his belly to the full,” v. 23a), God’s judgment will strike him. He will suffer in soul (“he will be in distress,” v. 22a; “terrors come upon him,” v. 25c). He will suffer in body:

    To fill his belly to the full,

    God will send his burning anger against him

    and rain it upon him into his body.

    He will flee from an iron weapon;

    a bronze arrow will strike him through.

    It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;

    the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;

    terrors come upon him.

    Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;

    a fire not fanned will devour him;

    what is left in his tent will be consumed. (vv. 23–26)

Wicked men like Job, Zophar is saying, experience such a living hell. Utter darkness; an unquenchable fire; an impaled body. Zophar’s version of the inferno of Elohim’s anger is as fierce as Dante’s!

Moreover, finally, and to be absolutely clear, Zophar concludes his speech, saying that such divine burning anger has been divinely decreed:

    This is the wicked man’s portion from God,

    the heritage decreed for him by God. (v. 29)