That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?
Parallel translations
- WEB that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
- KJV That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
- BSB the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
- NASB That the rejoicing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless momentary?
- NLT the triumph of the wicked has been short lived and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?
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
Zophar's thesis: the triumph of the wicked is brief and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment. He insists evil's success is fleeting.
Overview
Zophar states his central claim that whatever success the wicked enjoy is short-lived and their happiness momentary. There is real biblical truth here, for Scripture affirms the fleeting nature of ungodly prosperity (Psalm 73:18-20). Yet Zophar wields it as a weapon against Job, wrongly assuming Job's suffering marks him as one of these doomed wicked.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Ps 37:35–36I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
- Job 18:5–6“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.
- Job 8:12–13While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.
- Matt 13:20–21What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;
- Job 5:3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
- Acts 12:22–23The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
- Job 27:8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Ps 73:18–20Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.
- Matt 7:21Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
- Exod 15:9–10The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’
- Esth 5:11–12Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
- Gal 6:4But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else.
- Jas 4:16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
- Job 15:29–34He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
- Judg 16:21–30The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
- Esth 7:10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
- Job 8:19Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.
- Job 27:13–23“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
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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 20:5 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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