In these two chapters we have the second interchange between Zophar and Job, and the third interchange in the second round between Job and his friends. Both speeches differ somewhat from the earlier speeches in the book. Zophar, for the first time among the friends, indirectly accuses Job of specific sin—oppression of the poor. Job’s answer for the first time argues directly against the idea that the wicked suffer.
ZOPHAR: THE TRIUMPHING OF THE WICKED IS SHORT
Zophar first responds (vv. 2–3) to Job’s words in 19:28–29. Job had warned his friends that, if they continued to persecute him, they should be afraid of the judgment of God. Zophar answers that he has heard the rebuke (v.3), and that his anxious (or troubled) thoughts compel him to answer. He does not mean that Job’s warning has disturbed his complacency about his own theology, but rather that he is troubled on Job’s behalf, that Job continues in his false self-justifications.
In the rest of his speech (vv. 4–29) Zophar argues that the triumphing of the wicked is short but illustrates his point especially with reference to the particular point of oppressing the poor. Verse 5 makes the basic point, and verse 19 is very clear about the specific sin: “He has oppressed and forsaken the poor, He has violently seized a house which he did not build.” There are other references to this sin throughout the speech (for example, vv. 10, 15, and 17–18). Therefore, the particular judgments that Zophar ascribes to the wicked are the judgments of God especially on this sin. That is the key to some of the more puzzling verses here.
What are these judgments? 1) The oppressor of the poor perishes forever like his own waste or dung (v. 7a). 2) His life is insubstantial and vanishes as quickly as a dream or vision of the night (7b–9). 3) “His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will restore his wealth (v.10).” One of two interpretations is possible here. Zophar may have meant that the wicked man’s children will be so impoverished that they try to beg from the poor to restore the wealth that their father had but was unable to pass on to them. Or he may have meant that the children will beg the favor of the poor by restoring to them the wealth that their father got from them by his fraud and oppression. 4) His youthful vigor will lie down with him in the dust, that is, he will die young.
However, the judgment that Zophar gives particular attention to is that this oppressor of the poor will lose his riches (vv. 12–22). He savored his ill-gotten wealth as a man savors good food and holds it in his mouth to enjoy it as long as possible (vv. 12–13), but soon he will suffer the consequences of his evil, in the same way that the man who savored his food would suffer if, after swallowing, he found that the food contained poison (v.14). The oppressor will vomit up his riches; God will ensure it. Those riches will be like the poison of cobras to him, and he will die because of them (v.16). He will not see riches again because he will be unable to keep them for himself, and will be forced to restore them. He will get no enjoyment from the proceeds of his business. Because he knows no quietness in his belly (not heart, as the NKJV has) where the poison of the riches he has swallowed works death, he will save nothing of what he coveted (vv. 20–21). The hand of everyone whom he has made miserable will be turned against him (v. 22). When he is about to fill his stomach with the fruits of his oppression, God will cast on him the fury of his wrath (v. 23).
The whole paragraph revolves around the comparison between enjoying the fruits of oppression and eating food that tastes delicious but is really deadly poison.
God’s judgments come. As the wicked man tries to run away, God throws an iron tipped spear after him, or shoots at him with an arrow. He’s struck from behind, the weapon comes out through his front, and his gall spills on the ground. Terrors fall on him (vv. 24–25). Darkness and fire consume him, his treasures and any left in his tent (v. 26). Heaven and earth rise up to testify against him (v. 27). The increase of his house is lost, and his goods flow away so that he has nothing left (v. 28). This is his portion. He thought he had obtained a good portion by his oppression, but God ensures that very quickly he loses everything and perishes under wrath.
Zophar did not accuse Job directly, it is pretty clear that this is the sin which he thought Job had committed. And what Zophar implied, Eliphaz made explicit in his next speech:
For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, And stripped the naked of their clothing. You have not given the weary water to drink, And you have withheld bread from the hungry (22:6–7).
The friends of Job made the very common mistake of thinking that blessing is in things. Is that not why we pray so often for relief from earthly troubles and so seldom for grace to endure and wisdom to learn the lessons God is teaching us in our troubles? We have great difficulty believing that affliction can be for our profit. But sometimes God punishes the wicked with prosperity and blesses the righteous with adversity.
JOB: THE WICKED LIVE, BECOME OLD AND PROSPER
There are several things to note about Job’s response. 1) Unlike earlier speeches, this one does not address God directly or engage in soliloquy. 2) He does not answer the specific charge of sin; we do not find that until 29:12f. 3) This is a very impersonal speech. In it Job simply argues against Zophar’s point that the triumphing of the wicked is short.
The main part of the speech is in 21:7–34.
First, Job contrasts the wicked with himself; they live, become old and prosper. Their descendants are established. Their houses are safe from fear. Their cattle breed well. They have many children who are happy. They spend their days in wealth. There are no pangs in their death. (vv. 7–13). All this, while they live in open wickedness and defiance against God, even saying that they will not serve him unless they can see some profit to themselves in it (vv. 14–15). Their prosperity is in their hand (v. 16) probably means that they display it openly, along with their wickedness, for all to see. But, Job, adds, “Their counsel is far from me.”
Secondly, Job asks, How often do the wicked suffer (v.17)? Verse 18 should be translated as questions: “Are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that a storm carries away?” The answer is no. Men may say, “Then God will punish their children.” But let God recompense the wicked man himself, let his eyes see his own destruction. After he has died, what does he care about what happens to his children and his household (vv. 19–21)? God sees and knows all this; he is the judge of the high as well as of the low (v. 22).
Thirdly, Job makes a comparison between those who live prosperously and those who die in bitterness of soul. Both come to the same end. There is no difference between those at ease and those who never have eaten with pleasure. Where is justice, if the wicked man who prospers all his life suffers no more greatly at his death than the man who had no food to eat, or if the bitter of soul receives in death no recompense beyond what the prosperous receive?
Finally, Job argues that this, not what his friends have been saying, is the common experience of men. You will say to me, “Where is the house of the prince?” Ask the travelers, those who have broad experience of the world, and they will tell you. Verse 30 is difficult, but may mean again, You say that the wicked are reserved for the day of doom. But no one condemns the wicked man to his face or repays him for what he has done (v.31). He dies, but vigil is kept at his tomb to honor him (v.32). His grave is sweet to him, as it is to all who are like him (v. 32). So why do you try to comfort me with empty words? There is falsehood in your answers (v. 33).
This speech is different not in its basic question: why has God done this to me? But in the way that Job expresses his trouble. Instead of reciting a personal grievance and arguing that God has wronged a righteous man in afflicting him, he points out that God also seems to reward the wicked. It’s a problem that we see Asaph wrestling with in Psalm 73 and Jeremiah in chapter 12: “Why does the way of the wicked prosper (Jer. 12:1)?” It’s a more objective approach to the friends, not because Job is coming to a resolution of his trouble, but because he is strongly suppressing personal feeling for the sake of a different approach to persuading his friends that they are wrong to accuse him of sin because God has afflicted him.