Job 20:4

_KNOWEST THOU NOT THIS OF OLD, SINCE MAN WAS PLACED UPON EARTH,_ Knowest thou not? From thy way of behaving, one would think thou didst not know....

1-9 Zophar's discourse is upon the certain misery of the wicked. The triumph of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite are fleeting. The pleasures and gains of sin bring disease and pain; they end in remorse, anguish, and ruin. Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and the ruin that attends it will be accordingly....

Verse Job 20:4. _KNOWEST THOU_ NOT _THIS OF OLD_] This is a maxim as ancient as the world; it began with the first man: A wicked man shall triumph but a short time; God will destroy the proud doer. _SINCE MAN WAS PLACED UPON EARTH_] Literally, _since ADAM was_ _placed on the earth_; that is, since the fall, wickedness and hypocrisy have _existed_; but they have never _triumphed_ long. Thou hast lately been expressing confidence in reference to a general judgment; but such is thy character, that thou hast little reason to anticipate with any joy the decisions of that day....

KNOWEST THOU NOT THIS OF OLD - That is, dost thou not know that this has always happened from the beginning of the world, or that this is the invariable course of events. His purpose is to show that it was the settled arrangement of Providence that the wicked would be overtaken with signal calamity. It was “so” settled that Job ought not to be surprised that it had occurred in “his” case. Zophar goes on to show that though a wicked man might rise high in honor, and obtain great wealth, yet that the fall would certainly come, and he would sink to a depth of degradation corresponding to the former prosperity. SINCE MAN WAS PLACED UPON EARTH - Since the creation; that is, it has always been so....

EXPOSITION JOB 20:1 Zophar's second speech is even more harsh than his first (Job 11:1.). He adds coarseness and rudeness to his former vehement hostility (Job 20:7, Job 20:15). His whole discourse is a covert denunciation of Job as a wicked man and a hypocrite (verses 5, 12, 19, 29), deservedly punished by God for a life of crime. He ends by prophesying Job's violent death, the destruction of his house, and the rising up of heaven and earth in witness against him (verses 24-28). JOB 20:1,...

KNOWEST THOU [NOT] THIS OF OLD,.... Or "from eternity" g, from the beginning of time, ever since the world was; as if he should say, if you are the knowing man you pretend to be, you must know this I am about to observe; and if you do not know it, you must be an ignorant man, since it is an ancient truth, confirmed by all experience from the creation; not that Job could know it so early, he was not the first man that was born, nor was he made before the hills, but was of yesterday, and comparatively knew nothing; but the sense is, that this about to be delivered was an old established maxim, of which there had been numerous instances, SINCE MAN, or "Adam", WAS PLACED UPON EARTH; referring to the putting of Adam in Eden to dress the garden, and keep it; and every man, ever since, is placed on earth by the ordination, and according to the will of God, where and for purposes he pleases: t...

CHAPTER 20 THE SECOND ADDRESS OF ZOPHAR _ 1. Zophar's swift reply (Job 20:1)_ 2. Another description of the life and fate of the wicked (Job 20:4) Job 20:1. Zophar, the twitterer, begins his reply to Job with impatient haste. Job's words, probably those found in chapter 19:2-3, and the last two verses, have made him angry. He boils over with indignation. He is ready now to confirm the testimony already given and wound the suffering servant of God still more. Job 20:4. He follows the same path and there is again nothing new in his argument. The description of the wicked is great; no fault can be found with what he says about those who

JOB 20. SECOND SPEECH OF ZOPHAR. Zophar helps the return to the wider problem by appearing once more with a strong doctrine as to the shortness of the prosperity of the wicked. His theme is, Sin brings its own reward. JOB 20:1. Zophar replies to Job's exasperating words (Job 19:1). In Job 20:2 b _mg._ is probably to be followed. In Job 20:3 b Duhm, on the basis of LXX, reads, and with wind void of understanding thou answerest me. JOB 20:4. The portion of the wicked. How short is his joy, how utter his destruction! In...

KNOWEST THOU NOT THIS? This was Zophar's reply to Job in Job 19:25, implying that Job had no such hope. OF OLD. from of old. MAN. Hebrew. _'adam._ App-14....

The prosperity of the wicked is brief 4. _Knowest thou not this old_ i. e. knowest thou not this to be or to have been of old, lit. _from for ever_. "This" which is from of old and from the time man has been upon the earth is the fact that the felicity of the wicked is brief (Job 20:5). On "hypocrite" see ch. Job 8:13....