Commentary - Job 20:22-29

Bird's-eye view

Here Zophar the Naamathite continues his second speech, and he does not mince words. He is describing the certain doom of the wicked man, and he paints the picture in the most vivid colors imaginable. This is not a man who believes in a slap on the wrist. Zophar is operating within the general framework of Old Testament wisdom, which is that God has built a moral order into the cosmos. Righteousness leads to life, and wickedness leads to ruin. While his friends are misapplying this sound principle to Job's specific situation, the principle itself is not wrong. God is not mocked, and a man will reap what he sows.

Zophar's speech is a Technicolor description of divine wrath. The wicked man, who has spent his life oppressing the poor and hoarding wealth, finds that his very success becomes the instrument of his destruction. At the peak of his prosperity, he is trapped. When he thinks he is most full, God's anger is unleashed upon him. Every attempt to escape only leads him into another, more deadly trap. The whole created order, from the heavens above to the earth beneath, turns against him. This is a portrait of total, inescapable, and divinely ordained collapse. Zophar concludes by stating plainly that this is not some unfortunate accident; this is the portion and decreed inheritance for the wicked from God Himself.

Outline

Context In Job

Zophar's speech in chapter 20 is the second in the cycle of dialogues between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The friends are convinced that Job's immense suffering must be the direct result of some great, hidden sin. They are arguing from a principle of immediate and direct retribution. Job, while not claiming sinless perfection, has maintained his fundamental integrity and has challenged God to reveal the reason for his affliction. Zophar, the most dogmatic and harsh of the three, is not interested in nuance. For him, the case is open and shut: wicked people suffer, Job is suffering immensely, therefore Job must be exceedingly wicked.

This particular passage (20:22-29) is the climax of Zophar's argument. He is laying out, in terrifying detail, what he believes is the unalterable fate of the ungodly. While the theology is, in its broad strokes, biblical (God does judge sin), its application to Job is a pastoral and theological catastrophe. The book of Job as a whole serves as a massive corrective to this kind of simplistic, mechanistic view of suffering and blessing. However, we must not dismiss the content of Zophar's speech entirely. It stands as a true and solemn warning about the ultimate end of those who defy God, even if Zophar himself is a miserable comforter.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 22 In the fullness of his plenty he will be confined; The hand of everyone who is troubled will come against him.

Here is the great biblical irony of sin. The man thinks his accumulation of stuff will give him freedom, room to maneuver, a buffer against the world. He thinks his "plenty" will be a wide open field for him to enjoy. But God's economy doesn't work that way. At the very moment he reaches the pinnacle of his success, when his barns are full and his accounts are overflowing, that is when the walls close in. He is "confined." His treasure becomes his prison. Why? Because he has built his house on a foundation of injustice. He has troubled others to get what he has, and in the moral government of God, that trouble boomerangs. "The hand of everyone who is troubled will come against him." He made enemies on the way up, and he will meet them all on the way down. This is not just social blowback; it is the fabric of a just world reasserting itself.

v. 23 So it will be that he fills his belly, And God will send His burning anger on him And will rain it on him while he is eating.

Zophar's imagery is visceral. The wicked man achieves his goal; he gets to "fill his belly." This is the picture of carnal satisfaction. He has what he wants, and he is sitting down to enjoy it. And it is precisely at that moment of consumption, that moment of supposed security and pleasure, that the judgment falls. Notice who sends it: "God will send His burning anger." This is not bad luck. This is not a market downturn. This is personal, divine, and hot. The language of "rain" is potent. Rain is usually a blessing, a source of life. But here, God makes it rain wrath. He pours it down on the man "while he is eating." The very act of enjoying his ill-gotten gains becomes the occasion of his destruction. It is a picture of absolute and terrifying surprise. Think of Belshazzar, feasting and toasting with the vessels of God's temple, just as the hand appears to write his doom on the wall.

v. 24 He may flee from the iron weapon, But the bronze bow will pierce him.

Here we see the futility of all attempts to escape God's judgment. The wicked man is resourceful. He sees the first threat, the "iron weapon," and he is quick enough to dodge it. He thinks he has escaped. But in dodging the sword, he runs directly into the path of an arrow from a "bronze bow." The second threat is more distant, perhaps unforeseen, and more deadly. This is how God's judgment works. It is comprehensive. There are no gaps in His perimeter. You can't outrun Him. You can't outsmart Him. Every escape route from His wrath is simply a corridor leading to another form of that same wrath. Man's best defenses and quickest reflexes are utterly useless when God has purposed to judge.

v. 25 It is drawn forth and comes out of his back, Even the glittering point from his gall; Bouts of dread come upon him.

The arrow finds its mark. The description is graphic. The arrow goes all the way through him, "comes out of his back." The "glittering point" has passed through his "gall," a vital organ. This is a mortal wound. There is no recovery. And the result is not just physical death, but psychological terror. "Bouts of dread come upon him." This is the horror of realizing that the game is up, that all his frantic activity has come to this. This is the terror of a creature meeting his angry Creator. The physical agony is matched, and perhaps surpassed, by the mental and spiritual anguish. The glittering point of the arrow is a terrible reflection of the glittering treasures he lived for, now turned to his utter ruin.

v. 26 Complete darkness is held in reserve for his treasures; A fire unfanned will devour him; It will consume the survivor in his tent.

The judgment is total. The "treasures" he worked so hard to accumulate are now consigned to "complete darkness." They are worthless. They cannot buy him out of this predicament. They are simply stored up for oblivion. Then a "fire unfanned" will devour him. This is a fire not of human origin. No one lit it. It is a supernatural, divine fire. It is the pure, unmediated wrath of God. And it is not just for him. It will "consume the survivor in his tent." His legacy is erased. His family line, the posterity he thought he was securing with his wealth, is wiped out. This is de-creation. It is the undoing of all that the man built, all that he was.

v. 27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity, And the earth will rise up against him.

There will be no place to hide, and no one to take his side. His sin, which he may have thought was cleverly concealed, will be broadcast for all to see. "The heavens will reveal his iniquity." God Himself will be the prosecuting attorney, and the sky will be His evidence board. The whole universe becomes a witness against him. And it is not just a heavenly testimony. "The earth will rise up against him." The very ground he walks on, the creation he exploited for his own gain, becomes his enemy. This is covenantal judgment. When a man is at war with God, the whole cosmos, which is God's kingdom, is at war with him. He is an outlaw in his own world.

v. 28 The increase of his house will depart; His possessions will flow away in the day of His anger.

This verse summarizes the material consequences. Everything he gained, the "increase of his house," will be gone. It will "depart." The word for "flow away" suggests a river in flood, washing everything away. All his carefully constructed dams and levees of wealth and security are utterly breached on "the day of His anger." That day is a specific, appointed time. God's patience has a limit. When that day comes, all the accumulated stuff of a rebellious life is shown to be what it always was: transient, ephemeral, and useless as a defense against a holy God.

v. 29 This is the wicked man’s portion from God, Even the inheritance decreed to him by God.”

Zophar brings his hammer down with this concluding statement. This terrifying litany of disaster is not an accident. It is a "portion" and an "inheritance." These are words that are usually used for blessing. The Levites had the Lord as their portion. Israel inherited the promised land. But here, the words are inverted with chilling effect. The wicked man also has an inheritance, but it is an inheritance of wrath. It is "from God." It is "decreed to him by God." This is the language of divine sovereignty and settled purpose. Zophar is saying that this is the assigned, appointed, and inescapable destiny for all who set themselves against the Almighty. It is what they have chosen, and what God in His justice gives them.

Application

Now, Zophar was a miserable comforter because he was aiming all this at a righteous man. But a gun aimed at the wrong target is still a lethal weapon, and the principles here are still loaded. This passage is a stark and necessary reminder that God is not to be trifled with. We live in a sentimental age that wants to domesticate God, to turn the consuming fire into a decorative fireplace. This passage will not allow it.

The application for us is twofold. First, for the unbeliever, it is a screeching warning siren. The path of rebellion, of self-centered accumulation, of oppressing others for your own gain, has a destination. And that destination is described here. The fullness of your earthly pleasure will be the prelude to your eternal pain. Every escape route is an illusion. The whole universe will testify against you. This is your decreed inheritance. The only way to change that decree is to be written into a different will, the last will and testament of Jesus Christ, who took this very wrath upon Himself for all who would believe.

Second, for the believer, this is a cause for profound gratitude and sober living. This is the wrath we were saved from. This is the cup that the Father gave to the Son in Gethsemane. When we are tempted to envy the wicked, to look at their temporary prosperity and think they are getting away with something, we must remember this chapter. Their path is a slippery one, leading to destruction. Our path, though it may be marked with affliction, leads to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Therefore, let us walk not according to the flesh, storing up treasures for the unfanned fire, but according to the Spirit, laying up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where God does not rain down His anger.