8 passages from writers of 3 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these
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Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 20:2–5That the friends of blessed Job could never have been bad men, the words of Zophar the Naamathite bear witness, who on hearing from his lips the terribleness of the Judgment to come, adds directly … As though he said in plain words; ‘Because I see the terribleness of the last Judgment, therefore I am confounded in a state of consternation by the tumults of my thoughts.’ … But though the friends of blessed Job, instructed by habituation to his life, knew how to live well, yet, being uninstructed to form an exact estimate of God’s judgments, that anyone of the righteous can be susceptible of ills here below, they did not believe possible. And hence they imagined that holy man to be wicked, whom they saw scourged … But those same sentences, which, being right, he did not pronounce in a right way, let us go through, weighing them with earnest intentness of mind; and setting at nought what he says untrue against blessed Job, let us consider how true are the things he speaks, if he were speaking them against the ungodly.
That the friends of blessed Job could never have been bad men, the words of Zophar the Naamathite bear witness, who on hearing from his lips the terribleness of the Judgment to come, adds directly … As though he said in plain words; ‘Because I see the terribleness of the last Judgment, therefore I am confounded in a state of consternation by the tumults of my thoughts.’ … But though the friends of blessed Job, instructed by habituation to his life, knew how to live well, yet, being uninstructed to form an exact estimate of God’s judgments, that anyone of the righteous can be susceptible of ills here below, they did not believe possible. And hence they imagined that holy man to be wicked, whom they saw scourged … But those same sentences, which, being right, he did not pronounce in a right way, let us go through, weighing them with earnest intentness of mind; and setting at nought what he says untrue against blessed Job, let us consider how true are the things he speaks, if he were speaking them against the ungodly.
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 20:1–5; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition
Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.
Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 20:8For oftentimes in a ‘vision of the night,’ some that are poor are full of wonder that they are made rich, they see honours awarded to them, they behold heaps of riches, a multitude of attendants, the most beautiful garments, abundance of food presented to them. They are delighted to have escaped poverty, which they bore with a grieved spirit; but on a sudden, when they wake, they find how false all the joy was which they felt, and they are sad that they have awoke, in that real want gripes them awake. … Well then is it said of such a hypocrite, Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. For this, that he sees himself for a brief space rich in man’s esteem, is of the show of a phantasm, not of the substance of virtue
For oftentimes in a ‘vision of the night,’ some that are poor are full of wonder that they are made rich, they see honours awarded to them, they behold heaps of riches, a multitude of attendants, the most beautiful garments, abundance of food presented to them. They are delighted to have escaped poverty, which they bore with a grieved spirit; but on a sudden, when they wake, they find how false all the joy was which they felt, and they are sad that they have awoke, in that real want gripes them awake. … Well then is it said of such a hypocrite, Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. For this, that he sees himself for a brief space rich in man’s esteem, is of the show of a phantasm, not of the substance of virtue
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 20:8; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition
Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.
Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 20:22For first from avarice he pants to heap together things he covets, and when he has gathered together a great multitude as it were in a kind of belly of avarice, ‘in the fulness of his sufficiency, he is in straits,’ in that whilst he is full of anxiety how he may keep the things he has gotten, his own fulness itself straitens him. … On every side he dreads conspirators, and fears to be himself subjected to the very thing that he has done to others. One more powerful he is afraid of, lest he be exposed to violence from him; a poor man, when he sees one, he looks on as a thief. … In all these particulars then, because fear by itself is punishment, the unhappy wretch suffers things as great as he fears to suffer. … But it is wonderful security of the heart, not to seek what does not belong to us, but to rest content with each day’s sustenance day by day.
For first from avarice he pants to heap together things he covets, and when he has gathered together a great multitude as it were in a kind of belly of avarice, ‘in the fulness of his sufficiency, he is in straits,’ in that whilst he is full of anxiety how he may keep the things he has gotten, his own fulness itself straitens him. … On every side he dreads conspirators, and fears to be himself subjected to the very thing that he has done to others. One more powerful he is afraid of, lest he be exposed to violence from him; a poor man, when he sees one, he looks on as a thief. … In all these particulars then, because fear by itself is punishment, the unhappy wretch suffers things as great as he fears to suffer. … But it is wonderful security of the heart, not to seek what does not belong to us, but to rest content with each day’s sustenance day by day.
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 20:22; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition
Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.
Maimonides1138–1204JewishThe Guide for the Perplexed · on Job 20:5When a wicked and rebellious person is seen in prosperity, it may be assumed for certain that a change will take place; he will die, or troubles will afflict him and his house.
When a wicked and rebellious person is seen in prosperity, it may be assumed for certain that a change will take place; he will die, or troubles will afflict him and his house.
Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, part III, chapter 23, describing what the three friends hold; translated by M. Friedländer (second edition, London, 1904; the text of Project Gutenberg). The edition
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon of Córdoba and Cairo, physician and philosopher, whose Guide for the Perplexed reads the Bible's hardest passages with the philosophy of his day.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Job 20:5–29He grants that wicked men may for a time prosper, may be secure and easy, and very merry. … Job's friends were loth to own, at first, that wicked people might prosper at all (Job 4:9), until Job proved it plainly (Job 9:24, Job 12:6), and now Zophar yields it … He lays it down for a certain truth that they will not prosper long. Their joy is but for a moment, and will quickly end in endless sorrow. … Though impenitent sinners do not always fall under such temporal judgments as are here described (therein Zophar was mistaken), yet the wrath of God abides upon them, and they are made miserable by spiritual judgments, which are much worse … Never was any doctrine better explained, or worse applied, than this by Zophar, who intended by all this to prove Job a hypocrite.
He grants that wicked men may for a time prosper, may be secure and easy, and very merry. … Job's friends were loth to own, at first, that wicked people might prosper at all (Job 4:9), until Job proved it plainly (Job 9:24, Job 12:6), and now Zophar yields it … He lays it down for a certain truth that they will not prosper long. Their joy is but for a moment, and will quickly end in endless sorrow. … Though impenitent sinners do not always fall under such temporal judgments as are here described (therein Zophar was mistaken), yet the wrath of God abides upon them, and they are made miserable by spiritual judgments, which are much worse … Never was any doctrine better explained, or worse applied, than this by Zophar, who intended by all this to prove Job a hypocrite.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 20:5 and 20:29; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
John Gill1697–1771BaptistAn Exposition of the Old and New Testament · on Job 20:23and shall rain it upon him while he is eating; signifying, that the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against him, from whence rain comes; that it shall fall on him from above, unseen, suddenly, and at an unawares, and come with a force and violence not to be resisted, and in great abundance and profusion. The allusion seems to be to the raining of fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, the inhabitants of which were indulging themselves in gratifying the flesh, when that judgment came upon them, Luke 17:28; … perhaps Zophar may glance at Job's children being slain while they were eating and drinking in their elder brother's house, Job 1:18.
and shall rain it upon him while he is eating; signifying, that the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against him, from whence rain comes; that it shall fall on him from above, unseen, suddenly, and at an unawares, and come with a force and violence not to be resisted, and in great abundance and profusion. The allusion seems to be to the raining of fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, the inhabitants of which were indulging themselves in gratifying the flesh, when that judgment came upon them, Luke 17:28; … perhaps Zophar may glance at Job's children being slain while they were eating and drinking in their elder brother's house, Job 1:18.
John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, on 20:23; 1746–1763; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Baptist pastor in London and a scholar of Hebrew and the rabbis, who wrote a verse-by-verse commentary on the whole Bible.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Job 20:2–29His vehemence is now the less excusable, since Job in his previous speech has used the truly spiritual language of importunate entreaty and earnest warning in reply to the friends. … in him we have an illustration of the fact that a man is never more eloquent than when he has to defend his injured honour … It has been rightly remarked, that in Zophar the poet described to us one of those hot-heads who pretend to fight for religion that is imperilled, while they are zealous for their own wounded vanity. … It is not possible to illustrate the principle that the covetous, uncompassionate rich man is torn away from his prosperity by the punishment God decrees for him, more fearfully and more graphically than Zophar does it; and this terrible description is not overdrawn, but true and appropriate-but in opposition to Job it is the extreme of uncharitableness which outdoes itself: applied to him, the fearful truth becomes a fearful lie.
His vehemence is now the less excusable, since Job in his previous speech has used the truly spiritual language of importunate entreaty and earnest warning in reply to the friends. … in him we have an illustration of the fact that a man is never more eloquent than when he has to defend his injured honour … It has been rightly remarked, that in Zophar the poet described to us one of those hot-heads who pretend to fight for religion that is imperilled, while they are zealous for their own wounded vanity. … It is not possible to illustrate the principle that the covetous, uncompassionate rich man is torn away from his prosperity by the punishment God decrees for him, more fearfully and more graphically than Zophar does it; and this terrible description is not overdrawn, but true and appropriate-but in opposition to Job it is the extreme of uncharitableness which outdoes itself: applied to him, the fearful truth becomes a fearful lie.
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on Zophar’s speech, after 20:29; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Job 20:12–16The evil-doer is, in Job 20:12, likened to an epicure; he keeps hold of wickedness as long as possible, like a delicate morsel that is retained in the mouth … and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. … the inevitable result which the performance of an act assuredly brings: he must vomit back the property which he has swallowed down; God casts it out of his belly … He who sucked in the poison of low desire with a relish, will meet his punishment in that in which he sinned: he is destroyed by the poisonous deadly bite of the serpent, for the punishment of sin is fundamentally nothing but the nature of sin itself brought fully out.
The evil-doer is, in Job 20:12, likened to an epicure; he keeps hold of wickedness as long as possible, like a delicate morsel that is retained in the mouth … and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. … the inevitable result which the performance of an act assuredly brings: he must vomit back the property which he has swallowed down; God casts it out of his belly … He who sucked in the poison of low desire with a relish, will meet his punishment in that in which he sinned: he is destroyed by the poisonous deadly bite of the serpent, for the punishment of sin is fundamentally nothing but the nature of sin itself brought fully out.
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on 20:12–16; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.
Job 20
Job 20:2–29, World English Bible
Job 20 in the Bible · Told in the Story: Chapter 18, Miserable Comforters
What others have written
8 passages from writers of 3 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these
Oldest first.
Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 20:2–5That the friends of blessed Job could never have been bad men, the words of Zophar the Naamathite bear witness, who on hearing from his lips the terribleness of the Judgment to come, adds directly … As though he said in plain words; ‘Because I see the terribleness of the last Judgment, therefore I am confounded in a state of consternation by the tumults of my thoughts.’ … But though the friends of blessed Job, instructed by habituation to his life, knew how to live well, yet, being uninstructed to form an exact estimate of God’s judgments, that anyone of the righteous can be susceptible of ills here below, they did not believe possible. And hence they imagined that holy man to be wicked, whom they saw scourged … But those same sentences, which, being right, he did not pronounce in a right way, let us go through, weighing them with earnest intentness of mind; and setting at nought what he says untrue against blessed Job, let us consider how true are the things he speaks, if he were speaking them against the ungodly.
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 20:1–5; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition
Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.
Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 20:8For oftentimes in a ‘vision of the night,’ some that are poor are full of wonder that they are made rich, they see honours awarded to them, they behold heaps of riches, a multitude of attendants, the most beautiful garments, abundance of food presented to them. They are delighted to have escaped poverty, which they bore with a grieved spirit; but on a sudden, when they wake, they find how false all the joy was which they felt, and they are sad that they have awoke, in that real want gripes them awake. … Well then is it said of such a hypocrite, Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. For this, that he sees himself for a brief space rich in man’s esteem, is of the show of a phantasm, not of the substance of virtue
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 20:8; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition
Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.
Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 20:22For first from avarice he pants to heap together things he covets, and when he has gathered together a great multitude as it were in a kind of belly of avarice, ‘in the fulness of his sufficiency, he is in straits,’ in that whilst he is full of anxiety how he may keep the things he has gotten, his own fulness itself straitens him. … On every side he dreads conspirators, and fears to be himself subjected to the very thing that he has done to others. One more powerful he is afraid of, lest he be exposed to violence from him; a poor man, when he sees one, he looks on as a thief. … In all these particulars then, because fear by itself is punishment, the unhappy wretch suffers things as great as he fears to suffer. … But it is wonderful security of the heart, not to seek what does not belong to us, but to rest content with each day’s sustenance day by day.
Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 20:22; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition
Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.
Maimonides1138–1204JewishThe Guide for the Perplexed · on Job 20:5When a wicked and rebellious person is seen in prosperity, it may be assumed for certain that a change will take place; he will die, or troubles will afflict him and his house.
Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, part III, chapter 23, describing what the three friends hold; translated by M. Friedländer (second edition, London, 1904; the text of Project Gutenberg). The edition
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon of Córdoba and Cairo, physician and philosopher, whose Guide for the Perplexed reads the Bible's hardest passages with the philosophy of his day.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Job 20:5–29He grants that wicked men may for a time prosper, may be secure and easy, and very merry. … Job's friends were loth to own, at first, that wicked people might prosper at all (Job 4:9), until Job proved it plainly (Job 9:24, Job 12:6), and now Zophar yields it … He lays it down for a certain truth that they will not prosper long. Their joy is but for a moment, and will quickly end in endless sorrow. … Though impenitent sinners do not always fall under such temporal judgments as are here described (therein Zophar was mistaken), yet the wrath of God abides upon them, and they are made miserable by spiritual judgments, which are much worse … Never was any doctrine better explained, or worse applied, than this by Zophar, who intended by all this to prove Job a hypocrite.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 20:5 and 20:29; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
John Gill1697–1771BaptistAn Exposition of the Old and New Testament · on Job 20:23and shall rain it upon him while he is eating; signifying, that the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against him, from whence rain comes; that it shall fall on him from above, unseen, suddenly, and at an unawares, and come with a force and violence not to be resisted, and in great abundance and profusion. The allusion seems to be to the raining of fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, the inhabitants of which were indulging themselves in gratifying the flesh, when that judgment came upon them, Luke 17:28; … perhaps Zophar may glance at Job's children being slain while they were eating and drinking in their elder brother's house, Job 1:18.
John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, on 20:23; 1746–1763; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Baptist pastor in London and a scholar of Hebrew and the rabbis, who wrote a verse-by-verse commentary on the whole Bible.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Job 20:2–29His vehemence is now the less excusable, since Job in his previous speech has used the truly spiritual language of importunate entreaty and earnest warning in reply to the friends. … in him we have an illustration of the fact that a man is never more eloquent than when he has to defend his injured honour … It has been rightly remarked, that in Zophar the poet described to us one of those hot-heads who pretend to fight for religion that is imperilled, while they are zealous for their own wounded vanity. … It is not possible to illustrate the principle that the covetous, uncompassionate rich man is torn away from his prosperity by the punishment God decrees for him, more fearfully and more graphically than Zophar does it; and this terrible description is not overdrawn, but true and appropriate-but in opposition to Job it is the extreme of uncharitableness which outdoes itself: applied to him, the fearful truth becomes a fearful lie.
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on Zophar’s speech, after 20:29; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Job 20:12–16The evil-doer is, in Job 20:12, likened to an epicure; he keeps hold of wickedness as long as possible, like a delicate morsel that is retained in the mouth … and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. … the inevitable result which the performance of an act assuredly brings: he must vomit back the property which he has swallowed down; God casts it out of his belly … He who sucked in the poison of low desire with a relish, will meet his punishment in that in which he sinned: he is destroyed by the poisonous deadly bite of the serpent, for the punishment of sin is fundamentally nothing but the nature of sin itself brought fully out.
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on 20:12–16; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.