Second Discourse of Zophan.
THE last of the three comes forward once more, even avowing the haste, if not irritation, under which he sought to deal with Job. Zophar’s main point is the transient character of the evil-doer’s triumph. If such an one seem to rise up fast to the highest pinnacle of prosperity, it is but to be precipitated suddenly into the lowest pit of wretchedness and infamy, the evident object of divine resentment.
And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
And hence my haste in me.
A reprimand to my shame I have to hear;
Yet the spirit of my understanding answereth for me.
Knowest thou this from of old,
From the placing of man on the earth?
From near [is] the triumphing of the wicked,
And the joy of the ungodly for a moment.
Though his height mount to the heavens,
And his head reach the cloud,
Like his dung he perisheth for ever;
They that saw him shall say, Where [is] he?
Like a dream shall he fly away, and not be found,
And he shall be scared away like a vision of the night.
The eye scanned him, [but] not again;
And his place beholdeth him no more.
His children shall seek to please the poor,
And his bands give back his wealth.
His bones were full of youthful vigor,
Which will lie with him in the dust.
Though evil maketh sweet in his mouth—
He hideth it under his tongue,
He is sparing of it, and will not let it go,
And retaineth it in the midst of his palate—
His food is changed in his bowels,
The poison of asps is within him.
Wealth bath he swallowed, and shall disgorge it:
God will eject it again out of his belly.
He shall suck the poison of asps:
The tongue of the viper shall slay him.
He shall not gaze on rivulets,
Flowings of streams of honey and butter.
What he labored for, he shall restore, and not swallow.
As the property his exchange, and he rejoiceth not,
For he crushed, abandoned, the poor,
Seized a house, and built it not;
For he knew no rest in his belly;
He shall not escape with his desirable thing,
There is no remnant of his eating.
Therefore his prosperity endureth not.
In the fullness of his superfluity he is straitened,
Every hand of a wretch shall be upon him.
That it may be to the filling of his belly,
He shall send against him the burning of His anger,
And rain upon him with his food.
He fleeth from a weapon of iron,
A bow of copper pierceth him through;
It is drawn, and it cometh out of the body,
And the glittering sword proceedeth out of his gall:
Upon him [are] terrors.
All darkness [is] hid for his treasures,
A fire not blown consumeth him;
It shall fare ill with what is left in his tent.
The heavens reveal his iniquity,
And the earth riseth up against him.
The increase of his house departeth,
Things that ran away in the day of His anger.
This [is] the portion of the wicked man from God [Elohim],
And the heritage of his sentence from God [El].
The triumphant tone of Job provoked the hasty and self-confident spirit of Zophar, and deep shame, because of a reproachful reproof, which he considered as undeserved, by his friends, as it ill became the man who was suffering the due reward of his deeds and state. Hence he was burning to speak and rejoin, and his irrepressible impulse he mistook for fullness of solid matter. Yet, as applied to the case in hand, they were no more than his own “thoughts,” true to his usual egotism, as distinguished from the grave wisdom of Eliphaz, and the traditional knowledge of Bildad. Job, in his opinion, had better beware: a jubilee of the godless is of the briefest. Lift up his head as he may, he perishes forever, as the most offensive thing that men sweep away, so that they that see him say, Where is he? It is the fullest contrast with the positive blessing of faith: he that does the will of God abides forever; he that does it not is as a dream, or night-vision. Scanned once, he is not before the eye again; his place knows him no more.
Retribution sets in too for his children as well as himself. How could it be otherwise? For, however sweet to him, and enjoyed tenaciously, evil might be, it was poison within; and the riches so greedily and unscrupulously devoured God makes him vomit forth, himself too slain as by a venomous bite. Honey and cream may flow in rivulets, brooks, streams, but they yield no pleasure to him. What he had labored for he gives back, and swallows not; as the property of exchange, he rejoices not; for he ground down and forsook the poor, seized on a house he was not to build, being cut off before his plans were mature and he could enjoy. For, insatiate in inward greed, he should not escape with what he values most—not a remnant for his eating—and his prosperity does not endure.
How blinding is religious prejudice which could think thus of Job! Wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous, and who is able to stand before envy or jealousy? But error in religions judgment may be the most cutting of all, and this in proportion to the earnestness with which it is embraced; for the thought of God is then abused to exclude every atom of human, not to say of brotherly, kindness. See how the final scene is painted! In the fullness of abundance, says Zophar, his straits come: not a wretch that stretches not out his hand against him. God will give him plenty, but it will be the burning of His wrath, raining it on him with his food. Does he seek to avoid some weapon of iron? The bow of copper pierces him through. The language is most telling. It is drawn, and no sooner this than it comes forth from his flesh, the glittering sword out of his gall. Some understand “He is gone! terrors over him,” which certainly falls in with the graphic suddenness of the ruin described. But the older versions are adverse to Rosenmüller, Schultens, &c., who take it thus.
Finally, not wealth, but all darkness, is hid for his treasures; he is heaping it up for the day of wrath; a fire not blown on, but burning from within, shall consume him, and what has escaped former judgments shall then fare ill in his tent. Instead of the heavens and the earth appearing to attest his innocence, according to Job’s appeal in chapter 16:18 et seqq., they must give their evidence decisively against him, the increase of his house too departing as evanescent things in the day of divine wrath. This is the lot of the wicked man from Elohim, and his heritage awarded by El is, that he should lose all and be lost himself.