Job 27:13

This [is] the portion of a wicked man with God,.... Not to be punished in this life, but after death. This is what Job undertook to teach his friends, and is the purport of what follows in this chapter.

I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. These words are contrary to Job's previous sentiments (notes, Job 21:22-33; Job 24:22-25).

This is the portion of a wicked man; that which is mentioned in the following verses; in which Job delivers either, 1. The opinion of his friends, in whose person he utters them, and afterwards declares his dissent from them. Or rather, 2. His own opinion, and how far he agreeth with them; for his sense differs but little from what Zophar said, . With God; either laid up with God, or in his counsel and appointment; or which he shall have from God, as the next words explain it. Of oppressors; who are mighty, and fierce, and terrible, and mischievous to mankind, as this word implies, whom therefore men cannot destroy, but God will.

Job 27:13 This [is] the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, [which] they shall receive of the Almighty.Ver. 13. This is the portion of a wicked man with God] q.d. So ye say, and so I say too; for herein I will not deny to comply and to chime in with you. Zophar had said the same in effect, and used the selfsame expressions that Job here doth, Job 20:29. See the notes there. But must Job therefore be a hypocrite, though he continue to hope, and pray, and delight in God amidst all his miseries? Job 27:8-10. Negatur. He had spoken much before of the wicked man’ s prosperity; now, to prevent mistakes, he discourseth largely of his punishment, and how ill he beareth it. And the heritage of oppressors, &c.] Of fierce and formidable tyrants, that are a terror to others. These are the rewards they shall receive from the God of recompences, the Almighty, who can well enough deal with them, and delights to get him a name in their just destruction.

(13) This is the portion of a wicked man.—Some have thought that the remainder of this chapter, if not Job 28 also, constitutes the missing third speech of Zophar, and that the usual words, “Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,” have dropped out; but whatever may so be gained in symmetry seems to be lost in dramatic effect. We have seen that Bildad had but little to say, and that was only a few truisms; it is not surprising, therefore, that when it came to the turn of Zophar he had nothing more to say, and Job was left virtually master of the field. It is, however, a little remarkable that, supposing these words to be rightly ascribed to Job, he should precisely adopt those with which Zophar had concluded (Job 20:29). Perhaps Job is willing to show how completely he is prepared to accept the facts of his friends, although he will not admit their inferences. He, like them, is quite ready to allow that the prosperity of the wicked must be seeming rather than real, and that it must eventually come to nought.

Verse 13. This is the portion of a wicked man] Job now commences his promised teaching; and what follows is a description of the lot or portion of the wicked man and of tyrants. And this remuneration shall they have with God in general, though the hand of man be not laid upon them. Though he does not at all times show his displeasure against the wicked, by reducing them to a state of poverty and affliction, yet he often does it so that men may see it; and at other times he seems to pass them by, reserving their judgment for another world, that men may not forget that there is a day of judgment and perdition for ungodly men, and a future recompense for the righteous.

11–23. The disastrous fate of the wicked man at the hand of God. Job 27:7-10 drew a contrast between the internal state of the mind of the speaker and that of the sinner; in these verses the contrast is pursued in a terrible picture of the external history and fate of the sinner at the hand of God. From Job’s hand such a picture can have no meaning, unless either he now anticipates for himself a happy issue out of his afflictions, and restoration to prosperity, while the calamities that befall the wicked are final; or regards his own afflictions, even though they should bring him unto death, as altogether different in their character and marks from those that bring the wicked man to destruction. Either side of the alternative sets Job in complete contradiction to his position in the chapters that precede and follow this one. On the former side see on Job 27:10. The latter side supposes Job now to take a view of his afflictions entirely opposed to that which he has hitherto taken and continues to take, namely that they are due to the enmity and hostility of God (ch. Job 13:24, Job 16:9, Job 19:11; Job 19:22, but also ch. Job 30:21, and even the present chap. Job 27:2-6)—a view which Elihu severely animadverts upon, ch. Job 33:10 seq. And the idea that to become the prey of pestilence and sword (Job 27:14-15) is a sure mark of a wicked man, while to be the victim of a fatal and loathsome malady is no such proof of wickedness (Delitzsch), is one which it is difficult to treat with seriousness.

This is the portion of a wicked man with God - There has been much diversity of view in regard to the remainder of this chapter.

13. In chapters 21 and 24 Job had, in glowing terms, portrayed the prosperity of the wicked; he now (Job 27:13-23) guards his statement by conceding that wickedness is punished, though not uniformly.