1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, 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 puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me. 4 Don't you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth, 5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? 6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, 7 yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?' 8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night. 9 The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him. 10 His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth. 11 His bones are full of his youth, but youth shall lie down with him in the dust. 12 "Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, 13 though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth; 14 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him. 15 He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. 16 He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him. 17 He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. 18 That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice. 19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up. 20 "Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights. 21 There was nothing left that he didn't devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure. 22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him. 23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through. 25 He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. 26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent. 27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him. 28 The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath. 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God."
Zophar answers Job, and largely details the wretchedness of the wicked and the hypocrite; shows that the rejoicing of such is short and transitory, Job 20:1-9. That he is punished in his family and in his person, Job 20:10-14. That he shall be stripped of his ill-gotten wealth, and shall be in misery, though in the midst of affluence, Job 20:15-23. He shall at last die a violent death, and his family and property be finally destroyed, Job 20:24-29.
INTRODUCTION TO JOB 20
Zophar and his friends, not satisfied with Job's confession of faith, he in his turn replies, and in his preface gives his reasons why he made any answer at all, and was so quick in it, Job 20:1; and appeals to Job for the truth of an old established maxim, that the prosperity of wicked men and hypocrites is very short lived, Job 20:4; and the short enjoyment of their happiness is described by several elegant figures and similes, Job 20:6; such a wicked man being obliged, in his lifetime, to restore his ill gotten goods, and at death to lie down with the sins of his youth, Job 20:10; his sin in getting riches, the disquietude of his mind in retaining them, and his being forced to make restitution, are very beautifully expressed by the simile of a sweet morsel kept in the mouth, and turned to the gall of asps in the bowels, and then vomited up, Job 20:12; the disappointment he shall have, the indigent and strait circumstances he shall be brought into, and the restitution he shall be obliged to make for the oppression of the poor, and the uneasiness he shall feel in his own breast, are set forth in a very strong light, Job 20:17; and it is suggested, that not only the hand of wicked men should be upon him, but the wrath of God also, which should seize on him suddenly and secretly, and would be inevitable, he not being able to make his escape from it, and which would issue in the utter destruction of him and his in this world, and that to come, Job 20:23. And the chapter is, concluded with this observation, that such as before described is the appointed portion and heritage of a wicked man from God, Job 20:29
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.