Job 20 · a question people ask

Is Zophar talking about Job?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. Zophar is answering (20:1), and he says you once, "Don’t you know this from old time" (20:4), where in Hebrew the you is singular; then he speaks of "the wicked" (20:5) and "a wicked man" (20:29), naming no one. In his first speech he did speak to Job about his iniquity: "Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves" (11:6). In the next chapter Job says to the friends, "Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me" (21:27), and "For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’" (21:28). The book itself, before any of the speeches, says Job "was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil" (1:1). These are Zophar's words and Job's, and the book doesn't say what Zophar had in mind. These notes don't guess, and give no verdict.

The verses

“Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,”
Job 20:1 · World English Bible
“Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?”
Job 20:4-5 · World English Bible
“This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.””
Job 20:29 · World English Bible
“that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.”
Job 11:6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 20

Job 20: Sweet in his mouth

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).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions