Job 20

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¹Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, ✦ ²Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. ✦ ³I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. ✦ ⁴Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, ✦ ⁵That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? ✦ ⁶Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; ✦ ⁷Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? ✦ ⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. ✦ ⁹The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. ✦ ¹⁰His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. ✦ ¹¹His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. ✦ ¹²Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; ✦ ¹³Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: ✦ ¹⁴Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. ✦ ¹⁵He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. ✦ ¹⁶He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him. ✦ ¹⁷He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. ✦ ¹⁸That 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. ✦ ¹⁹Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not; ✦ ²⁰Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. ✦ ²¹There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. ✦ ²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. ✦ ²³When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. ✦ ²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. ✦ ²⁵It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him. ✦ ²⁶All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle. ✦ ²⁷The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. ✦ ²⁸The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. ✦ ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto 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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