Job 20:9

_THE EYE ALSO WHICH SAW HIM SHALL SEE HIM NO MORE; NEITHER SHALL HIS PLACE ANY MORE BEHOLD HIM._ 'The eye followeth him, but can discern him no more' (Psalms 103:16). A sharp looking is meant (Job 28:7; cf. Job 7:10). (Umbreit.)...

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....

THE EYE ALSO WHICH SAW HIM - This is almost exactly the language which Job uses respecting himself. See Job 7:8, note; Job 7:10, note....

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,...

THE EYE ALSO [WHICH] SAW HIM SHALL [SEE HIM] NO MORE,.... In this world, concerned in the affairs of life, and busy in worldly employments, and especially in the grandeur he sometimes was, if not removed by death; but the former sense seems most agreeable by what follows, NEITHER SHALL HIS PLACE ANY MORE BEHOLD HIM; the men of his place, as Ben Gersom, those that lived in the same place he did; or he shall not be seen, and known, and acknowledged any more as the master, owner, and proprietor of the house he formerly dwelt in; this seems to be taken from Job's own words in Job 7:10. The above Jewish commentator interprets this verse of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, whom Moses and the Israelites would see no more, Exodus 10:29....

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...

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....

E. POWERLESSNESS OF PROSPERITYNO ULTIMATE SECURITYZOPHAR'S WARNING (Job 20:1-29) TEXT 20:1-29 THEN ANSWERED ZOPHAR THE NAAMATHITE, AND SAID, _2_ Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me. 3 I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame; And the spirit of my understanding answereth me. 4 Knowest thou _not_ this of old time, Since man was placed upon earth, 5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless but for a moment? 6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, And his head reach unto the clouds; 7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: They that have seen him shall say, Where is he? 8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night....

ZOPHAR'S SECOND SPEECH Zophar ignores Job's conviction that God will one day establish his innocence, and proceeds to describe the short triumph of the wicked and his certain downfall and punishment at God's hand. Perhaps he wishes Job to apply the description to himself and take warning therefrom; though quite apart from that the speech is relevant to his argument that the moral order of the world is not, as Job maintains, unrighteous....