Job 20:1-29 - Judgment of Hearts Belongs to the Lord

Job 20:1-29

Zophar’s Sermon on the Wicked Man

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

2 “Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer,
Because of the turmoil within me.
3 I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me,
And the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.

4 “Do you not know this of old,
Since man was placed on earth,
5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?

6 Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens,
And his head reaches to the clouds,
7 Yet he will perish forever like his own refuse;
Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8 He will fly away like a dream, and not be found;
Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more,
Nor will his place behold him anymore.

10 His children will seek the favor of the poor,
And his hands will restore his wealth.
11 His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
But it will lie down with him in the dust.

12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
And he hides it under his tongue,
13 Though he spares it and does not forsake it,
But still keeps it in his mouth,
14 Yet his food in his stomach turns sour;
It becomes cobra venom within him.

15 He swallows down riches
And vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras;
The viper’s tongue will slay him.

17 He will not see the streams,
The rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 He will restore that for which he labored,
And will not swallow it down;
From the proceeds of business
He will get no enjoyment.
19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor,
He has violently seized a house which he did not build.

20 “Because he knows no quietness in his heart,
He will not save anything he desires.
21 Nothing is left for him to eat;
Therefore his well-being will not last.
22 In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress;
Every hand of misery will come against him.

23 When he is about to fill his stomach,
God will cast on him the fury of His wrath,
And will rain it on him while he is eating.
24 He will flee from the iron weapon;
A bronze bow will pierce him through.
25 It is drawn, and comes out of the body;
Yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall.
Terrors come upon him;
26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
An unfanned fire will consume him;
It shall go ill with him who is left in his tent.

27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
And the earth will rise up against him.
28 The increase of his house will depart,
And his goods will flow away in the day of His wrath.

29 This is the portion from God for a wicked man,
The heritage appointed to him by God.”

Zophar did not appreciate Job exposing him and his friends in their unwise counsel based on assumptions and resulting judgments against their supposed friend.  He told Job that he heard the rebuke and just had to answer back as if he understood more than he was told in the rebuttal.  He began by saying that the man is evil and only has a short time on the earth to triumph before his hypocrisy catches up to him, an almost direct assault on Job for speaking in his own defense.  Zophar basically told Job that Job’s high and mighty attitude of knowing what was right more than he did was like dying in his own dung and he will die and nobody would even remember him of his life and wisdom.  He accused Job of being an evil person who hides lies like venom under his words that even upsets his own stomach so that his riches will come back up and be lost for defending himself as he had been doing.  He further attacked Job by saying he would not have his riches restored or get any enjoyment anymore from anything he did still possess, as one who oppressed the poor and taken someone else’s house for his own, something Job never did in his life always lived (Job 1:1, 8, 10) aboveboard in sincerity and integrity of truth to help others.  This friend took advantage of the suffering of Job to make it the reason for unsettling thoughts as proving he must be guilty without having the understanding of the real source of the circumstances coming from the adversary.  He told Job he would suffer even more loss and God’s wrath of judgment as destruction comes like an arrow or a fire or even darkness thrust on him by the Almighty to show Job his sins and loss as a result according to his misguided understanding of the situation and supposed consequences.  Zophar summed up his verbal assault by saying that these things Job suffered were the portion given by God as earned by a wicked man, Job.  He must have done something wrong and evil to suffer such a in his friend’s skewed estimation.  We are told that we do not know the hearts of one another, and are to leave such judgment until all hearts and thoughts are revealed (1 Corinthians 4:3-4, 5, Hebrews 4:12) in the end; may we learn from this to do this and not as the counselors of Job who was deemed righteous by the Lord.  Judgment of hearts belongs to the Lord, not us.