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Jó 20

ARC · Chapter 20/42

1Então respondeu Sofar, o naamathita, e disse:

2Por isso é que os meus pensamentos me fazem responder, e portanto me apresso.

3Eu ouvi a reprehensão, que me envergonha, mas o espirito do meu entendimento responderá por mim.

4Porventura não sabes isto, que foi desde todo o tempo, desde que o homem foi posto sobre a terra?

5A saber: que o jubilo dos impios é breve, e a alegria dos hypocritas como d'um momento?

6Ainda que a sua altura subisse até ao céu, e a sua cabeça chegasse até ás nuvens,

7Comtudo como o seu proprio esterco perecerá para sempre: e os que o viam dirão: Onde está?

8Como um sonho vôa, e não será achado, e será afugentado como uma visão da noite.

9O olho que já o viu jamais o verá, nem olhará mais para elle o seu logar.

10Os seus filhos procurarão agradar aos pobres, e as suas mãos restaurarão a sua fazenda.

11Os seus ossos se encherão dos seus peccados occultos, e juntamente se deitarão com elle no pó.

12Ainda que o mal lhe seja doce na bocca, e elle o esconda debaixo da sua lingua,

13E o guarde, e o não deixe, antes o retenha no seu paladar,

14Comtudo a sua comida se mudará nas suas entranhas; fel d'aspides será interiormente.

15Enguliu fazendas, porém vomitalas-ha; do seu ventre Deus as lançará.

16Veneno d'aspides sorverá; lingua de vibora o matará.

17Não verá as correntes, os rios e os ribeiros de mel e manteiga.

18Restituirá do seu trabalho, e não o engulirá: conforme ao poder de sua mudança, e não saltará de gozo.

19Porquanto opprimiu, desamparou os pobres, e roubou a casa que não edificou.

20Porquanto não sentiu socego no seu ventre; da sua tão desejada fazenda coisa nenhuma reterá.

21Nada lhe sobejará do que coma; pelo que a sua fazenda não será duravel.

22Estando já cheia a sua abastança, estará angustiado: toda a mão dos miseraveis virá sobre elle

23Haja porém ainda de que possa encher o seu ventre; comtudo Deus mandará sobre elle o ardor da sua ira, e a fará chover sobre elle quando elle fôr a comer.

24Ainda que fuja das armas de ferro, o arco d'aço o atravessará.

25Desembainhada a espada, sairá do seu corpo, e resplandecendo virá do seu fel: e haverá sobre elle assombros.

26Toda a escuridão se occultará nos seus esconderijos: um fogo não assoprado o consumirá: e com o que ficar na sua tenda irá mal.

27Os céus manifestarão a sua iniquidade: e a terra se levantará contra elle.

28As rendas de sua casa serão transportadas: no dia da sua ira todas se derramarão.

29Esta, da parte de Deus, é a porção do homem impio: e, da parte de Deus, a herança dos seus ditos.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Zophar takes the floor again, offended by Job's response, and describes how the triumph of the wicked is as brief as a dream that vanishes upon waking. He details how wealth gained unjustly will turn to poison within the one who hoarded it.

Explanation

Zophar's second speech is clearly driven by personal offense ("I have heard the check of my reproach"), showing how the theological debate had also become an emotional confrontation between the participants. The vivid images of food turning to poison and riches being vomited back up illustrate the belief that gains obtained through oppression and injustice inevitably turn against the one who accumulated them, even if they seemed sweet for a time. Application for today: wealth or advantages gained at the expense of exploiting others bring, sooner or later, destructive consequences for those who pursue them that way.

Fun facts

  • The image of ill-gotten wealth turning into "the gall of asps" within a person (verse 14) uses the venom of serpents, a real and feared danger in the Near Eastern desert, as a powerful metaphor for the delayed but certain consequences of injustice.
  • This speech of Zophar's is his last in the book — unlike Eliphaz and Bildad, who each speak three times, Zophar has no third speech recorded in the current Hebrew text, a structural peculiarity noted by scholars of the book.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Jó 20:1Zophar’s second and final speech — he never appears a third time in the cycle, which puzzles scholars: is the text incomplete, or is that intentional?
  2. Jó 20:2Zophar returns for the last time, saying his own thoughts compel him to answer quickly — he is visibly unsettled by Job’s final warning in the previous chapter.
  3. Jó 20:3Zophar feels insulted by Job’s rebuke and says his understanding will answer for him — a defensive reaction before launching into his speech.
  4. Jó 20:4Zophar appeals to ancient wisdom, “since man was placed upon earth” — he wants to give what he is about to say universal weight.
  5. Jó 20:5The central thesis of Zophar’s second speech: the joy of the wicked is short, lasting only a moment — however great it may seem, it does not hold up.
  6. Jó 20:6Even if the wicked man’s height reached the heavens, Zophar says, that would not change his fate — the size of his success does not stop the fall.
  7. Jó 20:7The comparison with “his own dung” is deliberately humiliating — Zophar describes a disappearance as total as it is degrading.
  8. Jó 20:8Like a dream that flies away and vanishes, the wicked man disappears — reinforcing the idea that his prosperity was never solid, just a passing illusion.
  9. Jó 20:9Whoever has seen him will never see him again, nor will the place where he lived recognize him — the total erasure of his existence.
  10. Jó 20:10This man’s children will have to beg favor from the poor and give back his estate — wealth wrongly gained does not even pass to the next generation.
  11. Jó 20:11Even full of youthful vigor, that vigor will only rest with him in the dust — not even physical strength secures anything beyond death itself.
  12. Jó 20:12Zophar describes sin as sweet food in the mouth that turns into serpent’s venom in the stomach — the pleasure of evil is fleeting, the consequence is what lasts.
  13. Jó 20:13Continuing the image of evil savored as sweet: the wicked man keeps the taste under his tongue, unwilling to let it go, in no hurry to release it.
  14. Jó 20:14But that food turns into serpent’s venom inside him — the pleasure of sin sours as soon as it is “digested,” the consequence coming from within.
  15. Jó 20:15The riches he swallowed are vomited back up; God expels them from his belly — a violent, humiliating image of losing everything he gained.
  16. Jó 20:16He will suck the poison of asps and die by the viper’s tongue — the very greed that consumed him returns as fatal venom.
  17. Jó 20:17He will never see the rivers of honey and butter — the image of a land of plenty, like the Promised Land, from which he is excluded precisely because of his greed.
  18. Jó 20:18He will have to give back the fruit of his own labor without ever enjoying it — all his effort produces no pleasure in the end.
  19. Jó 20:19Zophar finally names the sin: this man oppressed and abandoned the poor, seized a house he did not build — concrete accusations of social injustice.
  20. Jó 20:20Because he never feels true satisfaction, he lets nothing escape his greed — and it is exactly this limitless greed that will cause his ruin.
  21. Jó 20:21Nothing is left after he devours everything — that, Zophar says, is why his prosperity cannot last.
  22. Jó 20:22At the height of abundance, anguish arrives, and everyone he oppressed turns against him — the very peak of success already contains the start of the fall.
  23. Jó 20:23The image of God raining fury and weapons on the wicked man is almost apocalyptic — Zophar wants to make clear that the fall, when it comes, is violent and total.
  24. Jó 20:24Even fleeing one weapon, he is struck by another — Zophar describes a fate with no escape, no matter which direction he turns.
  25. Jó 20:25The image of being pierced by an arrow that comes out gleaming from his own gall is graphic and violent — terror already grips him even before the final blow.
  26. Jó 20:26A fire “not blown” — that is, not lit by human hand, of supernatural origin — consumes everything left in his tent.
  27. Jó 20:27The heavens expose his guilt and the earth rises up against him — the hidden iniquity becomes public, witnessed by all creation.
  28. Jó 20:28The goods of his house are carried off on the day of God’s wrath — total material ruin closes out the picture of destruction.
  29. Jó 20:29Zophar closes by calling all this the “portion” and “heritage” decreed by God for the wicked man — a generic verdict that, in the context of the debate, points straight at Job.

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