Chapter 20

Zophar speaks:

Zophar also takes issue with Job's censure of his friends.

And then he launches right back into the same position as before.  The wicked may be happy for a time, as Job was before, but it doesn't last long, and then punishment, recompense, will come down on them.  As it has on Job...Zophar's kindness, what little there was in his previous speech, is gone in the face of Job's disparagement of him.  Zophar also takes the muffler off of what he thinks the problem is.  He tells Job all the nasty things that happen to the wicked, how they leave nothing behind for prosperity, they leave no name, no one to remember them, their children turn to the poor for mercy.  As if Job doesn't feel bad enough already!

2023 - It occurs to me today that Job's friends are just walking talking storehouses of cliches.  The evil rich will soon be thrown down.  A righteous man lives in splendor and glory.  These sorts of things are stated over and over by Jobs friends.  Like this:   4 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, 5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment? [Job 20:4-5 ESV].  Spoken as if it is ancient truth, when even back then they knew this was at best a generality.  Sometimes the wicked are wealthy all their lives and their children inherit the wealth for generations to come.  These things are what WE WANT to be true, but many times, they just aren't.

Possible FB post.

This verse about the wealth of the wicked:

22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him. [Job 20:22 ESV]

Like the old saying "Yeah, he's rich, but he ain't happy".  This is why.  He has nothing but enemies, those who want to take his ill-gotten wealth.  It is never "safe" in the hands of the wicked.

2021- Zophar pronounces the "known" ends of the evil.  He says nothing good is in store for any of them.  So he has gone from comforting Job to forecasting the additional gloom and doom in store for Job.  He has changed over from empathy to judgmental.  Perhaps Job saw this judgement underlying the initial speeches but it is just now occurring to me...