18 He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.
He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.
His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind. Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief.
You blind guides, who take out a fly from your drink, but make no trouble over a camel.
Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land,
Have no joy, O Israel, and do not be glad like the nations; for you have been untrue to your God; your desire has been for the loose woman's reward on every grain-floor.
For they have been planting the wind, and their fruit will be the storm; his grain has no stem, it will give no meal, and if it does, a strange nation will take it. Israel has come to destruction; now they are among the nations like a cup in which there is no pleasure.
The time has come, the day is near: let not him who gives a price for goods be glad, or him who gets the price have sorrow:
That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute?
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a meal of me, violently crushing me, he has made me a vessel with nothing in it, he has taken me in his mouth like a dragon, he has made his stomach full with my delicate flesh, crushing me with his teeth.
But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.
About Judah. What have you to do in my house? is it your thought that oaths and holy flesh will get you out of your trouble? will you make yourself safe in this way? You had been named by the Lord, A branching olive-tree, fair with beautiful fruit: with the noise of a great rushing he has put it on fire and its branches are broken.
The new wine is thin, the vine is feeble, and all the glad-hearted make sounds of grief. The pleasing sound of all instruments of music has come to an end, and the voices of those who are glad. There is no more drinking of wine with a song; strong drink will be bitter to those who take it. The town is waste and broken down: every house is shut up, so that no man may come in. There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; there is an end of all delight, the joy of the land is gone.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 20
Commentary on Job 20 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 20
One would have thought that such an excellent confession of faith as Job made, in the close of the foregoing chapter, would satisfy his friends, or at least mollify them; but they do not seem to have taken any notice of it, and therefore Zophar here takes his turn, enters the lists with Job, and attacks him with as much vehemence as before.
But the great mistake was, and (as bishop Patrick expresses it) all the flaw in his discourse (which was common to him with the rest), that he imagined God never varied from this method, and therefore Job was, without doubt, a very bad man, though it did not appear that he was, any other way than by his infelicity.
Job 20:1-9
Here,
Job 20:10-22
The instances here given of the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world are expressed with great fulness and fluency of language, and the same thing returned to again and repeated in other words. Let us therefore reduce the particulars to their proper heads, and observe,
Job 20:23-29
Zophar, having described the many embarrassments and vexations which commonly attend the wicked practices of oppressors and cruel men, here comes to show their utter ruin at last.