Bible study · Job 20:1-29
Job 20: Sweet in his mouth
Read Job 20:1-29 before you meet.
In a few lines
Zophar ends, "This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage" (20:29), and Job later asks, "For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?" (31:2): the same two Hebrew words. And the venom inside Zophar's wicked man (20:14) is the Hebrew word for his liver (20:25).
The verse to carry
“that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?”
Job 20:5
To talk about
1. Zophar says the joy of the godless is "but for a moment" (20:5); in the next chapter Job says the wicked "spend their days in prosperity" (21:13). Which have you seen more often, and how do you hold the two together?
2. "Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth" (20:12), it turns to "cobra venom within him" (20:14). Where have you seen something that tasted sweet at first turn bitter?
3. Zophar is one of the three friends who came "to sympathize with him and to comfort him" (2:11). When you have tried to comfort someone who was suffering, or someone tried to comfort you, what helped and what didn't?