Job 20

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¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, ✦ ²“Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me. ✦ ³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me. ✦ ⁴Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth, ✦ ⁵that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? ✦ ⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, ✦ ⁷yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’ ✦ ⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night. ✦ ⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him. ✦ ¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth. ✦ ¹¹His 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, ✦ ¹³though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth; ✦ ¹⁴yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him. ✦ ¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. ✦ ¹⁶He shall suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue shall kill him. ✦ ¹⁷He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. ✦ ¹⁸That 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. ✦ ¹⁹For 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. ✦ ²¹There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure. ✦ ²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him. ✦ ²³When 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. ✦ ²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through. ✦ ²⁵He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. ✦ ²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent. ✦ ²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him. ✦ ²⁸The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath. ✦ ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.” ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Job 18 ·10 Job 20 ·10 Job 27 ·9 Job 15 ·6 Job 8 ·5 Job 31 ·5 Deut 32 ·4 Ps 109 ·3

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 20YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 20David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 20Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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