Job 20

Job 20:1

5. Zophar’s Second Speech (Chap. 20)20:1-19 Apparently Job’s confession of faith fell on deaf ears. Zophar was not listening. He says that human history demonstrates that the proud man . . . will perish out of sight forever. His children will beg from the poor, and return what he has taken unjustly. Though still in youthful vigor, he will be cut off. No matter how luxuriously he has lived, he will suddenly lose everything he has gained through oppressing the poor. 20:20-29 Almost every imaginable calamity will come upon him, including hunger, distress, misery, armed attack, fire, and loss of tranquility. Heaven and . . . earth will conspire against him, and his possessions will disappear. This is the heritage appointed to the wicked by God. G. Campbell Morgan says concerning this: In a passage thrilling with passion, Zophar describes the instability of evil gains. There is a triumph, but it is short. There is a mounting up, but it is followed by swift vanishing. There is a sense of youth, but it bends to dust. There is a sweetness but it becomes remorse; a swallowing down, which issues in vomiting; a getting without rejoicing. The final nemesis of the wicked is that God turns upon him, and pursues him with instruments of judgment. Darkness enwraps him. His sin is set in the light of the heavens, and earth turns against him. Let the history of wickedness be considered and it will be seen how true this is.