He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
Parallel translations
- WEB That 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.
- KJV That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
- NKJV He will restore that for which he labored, And will not swallow it down; From the proceeds of business He will get no enjoyment.
- NASB “He returns the product of his labor And cannot swallow it; As to the riches of his trading, He cannot even enjoy them.
- NLT They will give back everything they worked for. Their wealth will bring them no joy.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He must give back the fruit of his labor and cannot enjoy his profits. His gains bring him no lasting joy.
Overview
Zophar says the wicked man labors only to surrender what he earns, never tasting the rejoicing his wealth promised. The principle is that gain pursued through oppression yields no true satisfaction. It echoes the wisdom that profit gotten wrongly is ultimately empty, while contentment and joy are gifts of God to be received with thanksgiving (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Job 20:10His sons will seek the favor of the poor, for his own hands must return his wealth.
- Jer 51:44I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.
- Prov 1:12let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.
- Job 20:15He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
- Jer 22:13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
- Jer 11:15–16What right has My beloved in My house, having carried out so many evil schemes? Can consecrated meat avert your doom, so that you can rejoice?
- Job 31:25if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,
- Isa 24:7–11The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
- Matt 23:24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
- Jer 51:34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.
- Job 31:29If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—
- Job 20:5the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
- Hos 8:7–8For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Matt 23:13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Jer 22:17“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”
- Jas 4:8–9Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Amos 8:4Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- Lam 2:16All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”
- Hos 9:1Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
- Ezek 7:12The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.
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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 20:18 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.
Original language
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