19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
"By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, But he who is kind to the needy honors him.
Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; From their young children you take away my blessing forever.
They covet fields, and seize them; And houses, and take them away: And they oppress a man and his house, Even a man and his heritage.
Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their lords, "Bring, and let us drink." The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, "The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks. You will go out at the breaks in the wall, Everyone straight before her; And you will cast yourselves into Harmon," says Yahweh.
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
For the vineyard of Yahweh of Hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah his pleasant plant: And he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; For righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress. Woe to those who join house to house, Who lay field to field, until there is no room, And you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don't marvel at the matter: for one official is eyed by a higher one; and there are officials over them.
The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don't know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;
"Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says Yahweh; "I will set him in safety from those who malign him."
To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, That man who is of the earth may terrify no more.
"If I have despised the cause of my man-servant Or of my maid-servant, When they contended with me; What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him? Didn't he who made me in the womb make him? Didn't one fashion us in the womb? "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, Or have eaten my morsel alone, And the fatherless has not eaten of it (No, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, Her have I guided from my mother's womb); If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering; If his heart hasn't blessed me, If he hasn't been warmed with my sheep's fleece; If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, Because I saw my help in the gate: Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, And my arm be broken from the bone.
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, And they take the widow's ox for a pledge. They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves. Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food; The wilderness yields them bread for their children. They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked. They lie all night naked without clothing, And have no covering in the cold. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And embrace the rock for lack of a shelter. There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge of the poor, So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst. From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, Yet God doesn't regard the folly.
"Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me. For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.
Here I am: witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. They said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything of any man's hand.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 20
Commentary on Job 20 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 20
One would have thought that such an excellent confession of faith as Job made, in the close of the foregoing chapter, would satisfy his friends, or at least mollify them; but they do not seem to have taken any notice of it, and therefore Zophar here takes his turn, enters the lists with Job, and attacks him with as much vehemence as before.
But the great mistake was, and (as bishop Patrick expresses it) all the flaw in his discourse (which was common to him with the rest), that he imagined God never varied from this method, and therefore Job was, without doubt, a very bad man, though it did not appear that he was, any other way than by his infelicity.
Job 20:1-9
Here,
Job 20:10-22
The instances here given of the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world are expressed with great fulness and fluency of language, and the same thing returned to again and repeated in other words. Let us therefore reduce the particulars to their proper heads, and observe,
Job 20:23-29
Zophar, having described the many embarrassments and vexations which commonly attend the wicked practices of oppressors and cruel men, here comes to show their utter ruin at last.