1 Then began Zophar the Naamathite, and said:

2 Therefore do my thoughts furnish me with a reply,

And indeed by reason of my feeling within me.

3 The correction of my reproach I must hear,

Nevertheless the spirit of my understanding informeth me.

4 Knowest thou this which is from everlasting,

Since man was placed upon the earth:

5 That the triumphing of the evil-doer is not long,

And the joy of the godless is but for a moment?

All modern expositors take Job 20:2 as an apology for the opposition which follows, and the majority of them consider בּעבוּר as elliptical for בעבור זאת , as Tremell., Piscator, and others have done, partly (but wrongly) by referring to the Rebia mugrasch . Ewald observes: “ בעבור stands without addition, because this is easily understood from the כן in לכן .” But although this ellipsis is not inadmissible (comp. לכן = לכן אשׁר , Job 34:25; כעל , Isaiah 59:18), in spite of it Job 20:2 furnishes no meaning that can be accepted. Most expositors translate: ”and hence the storm within me” (thus e.g., Ewald); but the signification perturbatio animi , proposed by Schultens for חוּשׁי , after the Arab. ḥâš , is too remote from the usage of Hebrew. Moreover, this Arab. ḥâš signifies prop. to scare, hunt, of game; not, however: to be agitated, to storm, - a signification which even the corresponding Hebr. חוּשׁ , properare , does not support. Only a few expositors (as Umbreit, who translates: because of my storm within me) take בעבור (which occurs only this once in the book of Job) as praepos., as it must be taken in consideration of the infin. which follows (comp. Exodus 9:16; Exodus 20:20; 1 Samuel 1:6; 2 Samuel 10:3). Further, לכן (only by Umbreit translated by “yet,” after the Arab. lâkin , lâkinna , which it never signifies in Hebr., where ל is not = לא , but = ל with Kametz before the tone) with that which follows is referred by several expositors to the preceding speech of Job, e.g., Hahn: “under such circumstances, if thou behavest thus;” by most, however, it is referred to Job 20:3, e.g., Ew.: ” On this account he feels called upon by his thoughts to answer, and hence his inward impulse leaves him no rest: because he hears from Job a contemptuous wounding reproof of himself.” In other words: in consequence of the reproach which Job casts upon him, especially with his threat of judgment, Zophar's mind and feelings fall into a state of excitement, and give him an answer to which he now gives utterance. This prospective sense of לכן may at any rate be retained, though בעבור is taken as a preposition (wherefore ... and indeed on account of my inward commotion); but it is far more natural that the beginning of Zophar's speech should be connected with the last word of Job's. Job 20:2 may really be so understood if we connect חושׁי , not with Arab. ḥâš , חושׁ , to excite, to make haste (after which also Saad. and Aben-Ezra: on account of my inward hastening or urging), but with Arab. ḥs , to feel; in this meaning chsh is usual in all the Semitic dialects, and is even biblical also; for Ecclesiastes 2:25 is to be translated: who hath feeling (pleasure) except from Him (read ממנו )? i.e., even in pleasure man is not free, but has conditions fixed by God.

With לכן (used as in Job 42:3) Zophar draws an inference from Job's conduct, esp. from the turn which his last speech has taken, which, as ישׁיבוּני שׂעיפּי

(Note: Thus it is to be read according to the Masoretic note, ומלא לית (i.e., plene , as nowhere else), which occurs in Codd., as is also attested by Kimchi in his Gramm., Moznajim , p. 8; Aben-Ezra in his Gramm., Zachoth 1, b ; and the punctuator Jekuthiël, in his Darche ha-Nikkud (chapter on the letters יהוא ).)

affirms, urges him involuntarily and irresistibly forward, and indeed, as he adds with Waw explic.: on account of the power of feeling dwelling in him, by which he means both his sense of truth and his moral feeling, in general the capacity of direct perception, not perception that is only attained after long reflection. On שׂעיפי , of thoughts which, as it were, branch out, vid., on Job 4:13, and Psychol . S. 181. השׁיב signifies, as everywhere, to answer, not causative, to compel to answer. חוּשׁי is n. actionis in the sense of רגישׁתּי (Targ.), or הרגישׁי (Ralbag), which also signifies “my feeling ( αἴσθησις ),” and the combination חושׁי בי is like Job 4:21; Job 6:13. Wherein the inference consists in self-evident, and proceeds from Job 20:4. In Job 20:3 expression is given to the ground of the conclusion intended in לכן : the chastisement of my dishonour, i.e., which tends to my dishonour (comp. Isaiah 53:5, chastisement which conduces to our peace), I must hear (comp. on this modal signification of the future, e.g., Job 17:2); and in Job 20:3 Zophar repeats what he has said in Job 20:2, only somewhat differently applied: the spirit, this inner light (vid., Job 32:8; Psychol . S. 154, f ), answers him from the perception which is peculiar to himself, i.e., out of the fulness of this perception it furnishes him with information as to what is to be thought of Job with his insulting attacks, viz., (this is the substance of the השׁיב of the thoughts, and of the ענות of the spirit), that in this conduct of Job only his godlessness is manifest. This is what he warningly brings against him, Job 20:4 : knowest thou indeed (which, according to Job 41:1; 1 Kings 21:19, sarcastically is equivalent to: thou surely knowest, or in astonishment: what dost thou not know?!) this from the beginning, i.e., this law, which has been in operation from time immemorial (or as Ew.: hoccine scis aeternum esse , so that מני־עד is not a virtual adj., but virtual predicate-acc.), since man was placed ( שׂים infin., therefore prop., since one has placed man) upon the earth (comp. the model passage, Deuteronomy 4:32), that the exulting of the wicked is מקּרוב , from near, i.e., not extending far, enduring only a short time (Arab. qrı̂b often directly signifies brevis ); and the joy of the godless עדי־רגע , only for a moment, and continuing no longer?

6 If his aspiration riseth to the heavens,

And he causeth his head to touch the clouds:

7 Like his dung he perisheth for ever;

Those who see him say: Where is he?

8 As a dream he flieth away, and they cannot find him;

And he is scared away as a vision of the night.

9 The eye hath seen him, and never again,

And his place beholdeth him no more.

10 His children must appease the poor,

And his hands give up his wealth.

11 His bones were full of youthful vigour;

Now it is laid down with him in the dust.

If the exaltation of the evil-doer rises to heaven, and he causes his head to reach to the clouds, i.e., to touch the clouds, he notwithstanding perishes like his own dung. We are here reminded of what Obadiah, Job 20:4, says of Edom, and Isaiah, Isaiah 14:13-15, says of the king of Babylon. שׂיא is equivalent to נשׂיא , like שׂוא , Psalms 89:10 = נשׂוא ; the first weak radical is cast away, as in כּילי = נכילי , fraudulentus , machinator , Isaiah 32:5, and according to Olsh. in שׁיבה = ישׁיבה , 2 Samuel 19:33. הגּיע is to be understood as causative (at least this is the most natural) in the same manner as in Isaiah 25:12, and freq. It is unnecessary, with Ew., Hirz., and Hlgst., after Schultens, to transl. כגללו , Job 20:7 , according to the Arab. jlâl (whence the name Gelâl-ed-dîn ): secundum majestatem suam , or with Reiske to read בגללו , in magnificentia sua , and it is very hazardous, since the Hebrew גלל has not the meaning of Arab. jll , illustrem esse . Even Schultens, in his Commentary , has retracted the explanation commended in his Animadv., and maintained the correctness of the translation, sicut stercus suum (Jer. sicut sterquilinium ), which is also favoured by the similar figurative words in 1 Kings 14:10 : as one burneth up (not: brushes away) dung ( הגּלל ), probably cow-dung as fuel, until it is completely gone. גּללו (or גּללו with an audible Shevâ ) may be derived from גּלל , but the analogy of צללו favours the primary form גּל (Ew. §255, b ); on no account is it גּלל . The word is not low, as Ezekiel 4:12, comp. Zephaniah 1:17, shows, and the figure, though revolting, is still very expressive; and how the fulfilment is to be thought of may be seen from an example from 2 Kings 9:37, according to which, “as dung upon the face of the field shall it be, so that they cannot say: this is Jezebel.”

(Note: In Arabic, gille ( גּלּה ) and gelle ( גּלּה ) is the usual and preferred fuel (hence used as synon. of hhattab ) formed of the dung of cows, and not indeed yoke-oxen ( baqar 'ammâle ), because they have more solid fodder, which produces no material for the gelle, but from cattle that pasture in the open fields ( baqar bat.tâle ), which are almost entirely milking cows. This dung is collected by women and children in the spring from the pastures as perfectly dry cakes, which have the green colour of the grass. Every husbandman knows that this kind of dung - the product of a rapid, one might say merely half, digestion, even when fresh, but especially when dry - is perfectly free from smell. What is collected is brought in baskets to the forming or pressing place ( mattba'a , מטבּעה ), where it is crumbled, then with water made into a thick mass, and, having been mixed with chopped straw, is formed by the women with the hand into round cakes, about a span across, and three fingers thick. They resemble the tanners' tan-cakes, only they are not square. Since this compound has the form of a loaf it is called qurss (which also signifies a loaf of bread); and since a definite form is given to it by the hand, it is called ttabu' ( טבּוּע ), collective ttêbâbi' , which צפוּעי ( צפיעי ), Ezekiel 4:15, resembles in meaning; for ssaf' , צפע (cogn. ssafhh , צפח ), signifies to beat anything with the palm of the hand. First spread out, then later on piled up, the gelle lies the whole summer in the mattba'a . The domes ( qubeb ) are not formed until a month before the rainy season, i.e., a circular structure is built up of the cakes skilfully placed one upon another like bricks; it is made from six to eight yards high, gradually narrowed and finished with a vaulted dome, whence this structure has its name, qubbe ( קבּה ). Below it measures about eight or ten paces, it is always hollow, and is filled from beneath by means of an opening which serves as a door. The outside of the qubbe is plastered over with a thick solution of dung; and this coating, when once dried in the sun, entirely protects the building, which is both storehouse and store, against the winter rains. When they begin to use the fuel, they take from the inside first by means of the doorway, and afterwards (by which time the heavy rains are over) they use up the building itself, removing the upper part first by means of a ladder. By the summer the qubbe has disappeared. Many large households have three or four of these stores. Where walled-in courts are spacious, as is generally the case, they stand within; where not, outside. The communities bordering on the desert, and exposed to attacks from the Arabs, place them close round their villages, which gives them a peculiar appearance. When attacked, the herds are driven behind these buildings, and the peasants make their appearance between them with their javelins. Seetzen reckons the gelle among the seven characteristics of the district of Haurân ( Basan ).

It appears that Ezekiel 4:12. - where the prophet is allowed the usual cow-dung, the flame of which has no smell whatever, and its ashes, which smoulder for a long time, are as clean as wood ashes, instead of the cakes ( גּללי ) of human dung - is to be explained according to this custom. My fellow-travellers have frequently roasted mushrooms ( futtr ) and truffles ( faq' , פּקע ) in the early spring in the glowing ashes of the gelle . On the other hand, it would be an error to infer from this passage that the Semites made use of human dung for fuel; the Semites (including the Nomads) are the most scrupulously particular people respecting cleanliness. According to the above, Zephaniah 1:17 may be explained: “their flesh shall become like dung,” i.e., be burned or destroyed like dung. And also we understand the above passage in the book of Job, “as his heap of dung-cakes shall he be consumed away,” exactly like 1 Kings 14:10 : “I will burn (take away) the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man burneth the dung-cakes until they are consumed,” The suff. in כּגללו refers to the habitation of the evil-doer, above whose grovelling joy the high dome of the dung-cakes rises, which, before one becomes aware of it, has disappeared; and throughout the description of the sudden destruction of the evil-doer, 1 Kings 14:8, 1 Kings 14:9, the reader must keep the figure of this dome and its disappearing before his mind. If it be objected that by such a rendering כּגלליו would be expected, 1 Kings 14:10 shows that גּלל ( גּל ) was also used as a collective, and the Arabic gelle is never used in any other way, which is the more remarkable, as one from the first regards its termination as the “Arab. t of unity.” My attendants on my journey from Damascus (where there is no gelle , and consequently the word is not used) always took it so, and formed the plural gellât and the collective gilel , and were always laughed at and corrected: say Arab. aqrâts jllt or tbâbî' jllt! - Wetzst.)

The continuation here, Job 20:7 , is just the same: they who saw him ( partic. of what is past, Ges. §134, 1) say: where is he? As a dream he flieth away, so that he is not found, and is scared away ( ידּד Hoph., not ידּד Kal ) as a vision of the night ( חזּיון everywhere in the book of Job instead of חזון , from which it perhaps differs, as visum from visio ), which one banishes on waking as a trick of his fancy (comp. Psalms 73:20; Isaiah 29:7.). Eyes looked upon him ( שׁזף only in the book of Job in this signification of a fixed scorching look, cogn. שׁדף , adurere , as is manifest from Song of Solomon 1:6), and do it no more; and his place ( מקומו construed as fem., as Genesis 18:24; 2 Samuel 17:12, Cheth .) shall not henceforth regard him ( שׁוּר , especially frequent in the book of Job, prop. to go about, cogn. תור , then to look about one). The futt . here everywhere describe what shall meet the evil-doer. Therefore Ewald's transl., “his fists smote down the weak,” cannot be received. Moreover, חפניו , which must then be read instead of בּנין , does not occur elsewhere in this athletic signification; and it is quite unnecessary to derive ירצּוּ from a רצּה = רצּץ (to crush, to hurl to the ground), or to change it to ירצּוּ (Schnurrer) or ירצּצוּ (Olsh.); for although the thought, filios ejus vexabunt egeni (lxx according to the reading θλάσειαν , and Targ. according to the reading ירעעוּן ), is not unsuitable for Job 20:10 , a sense more natural in connection with the position of bnyw, and still more pleasing, is gained if רצּה is taken in the usual signification: to conciliate, appease, as the Targ. according to the reading ירעוּן (Peschito-word for ἀποκαταλλάσσειν ), and Ges., Vaih., Schlottm., and others, after Aben-Ezra, Ralbag, Merc.: filii ejus placabunt tenues, quos scilicet eorum pater diripuerat, vel eo inopiae adigentur, ut pauperibus sese adjungere et ab illis inire gratiam cognantur. Its retributive relation to Job 20:19 is also retained by this rendering. The children of the unfeeling oppressor of the poor will be obliged, when the tyrant is dead, to conciliate the destitute; and his hands, by means of his children, will be obliged to give back his property, i.e., to those whom his covetousness had brought to beggary ( און , exertion, strength, Job 18:7, then as hown, and synon. חיל , wealth, prob. from the radical meaning to breathe, which is differently applied in the Arabic aun , rest, and haun , lightness). Carey thinks that the description is retrospective: even he himself, in his lifetime, which, however, does not commend itself, since here it is throughout the deceased who is spoken of. As in Job 20:9, so now in Job 20:11 also, perf . and fut . interchange, the former of the past, the latter of the future. Jerome, by an amalgamation of two distinct radical significations, translates: ossa ejus implebuntur (it should be impleta erant ) vitiis adolescentiae ejus , which is to be rejected, because עלוּם , Psalms 90:8, is indeed intended of secret sin, but signifies generally that which is secret (veiled). On the contrary, עלוּמים , Job 33:25, certainly signifies adolescentia (Arab. gulûmat ), and is accordingly, after lxx, Targ., and Syr., to be translated: his bones were full of youthful vigour. In Job 20:11 , תּשׁכּב , as Job 14:19, can refer to the purely plural עצמותיו , but the predicate belonging to it would then be plur. in Job 20:11 , and sing. in Job 20:11 ; on which account the reference to עלוּמו , which is in itself far more suitable, is to be preferred (Hirz., Schlottm.): his youthful vigour, on which he relied, lies with him in the dust (of the grave).

12 If wickedness tasted sweet in his mouth,

He hid it under his tongue;

13 He carefully cherished it and did not let it go,

And retained it in his palate:

14 His bread is now changed in his bowels,

It is the gall of vipers within him.

15 He hath swallowed down riches and now he spitteth them out,

God shall drive them out of his belly.

16 He sucked in the poison of vipers,

The tongue of the adder slayeth him.

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 (Renan: comme un bonbon qu'on laisse fondre dans la bouche ), and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. המתּיק , to make sweet, has here the intransitive signification dulcescere , Ew. §122, c . הכחיד , to remove from sight, signifies elsewhere to destroy, here to conceal (as the Piel , Job 6:10; Job 15:18). חמל , to spare, is construed with על , which is usual with verbs of covering and protecting. The conclusion of the hypothetical antecedent clauses begins with Job 20:14; the perf . נהפּך (with Kametz by Athnach ) describes the suddenness of the change; the מרורת which follows is not equivalent to למרורת (Luther: His food shall be turned to adder's gall in his body ), but Job 20:14 expresses the result of the change in a substantival clause. The bitter and poisonous are synonymous in the ancient languages; hence we find the meanings poison and gall (Job 20:25) in מררה , and ראשׁ signifies both a poisonous plant which is known by its bitterness, and the poison of plants like to the poison of serpents (Job 20:16; Deuteronomy 32:33). חיל (Job 20:15) is property, without the accompanying notion of forcible acquisition (Hirz.), which, on the contrary, is indicated by the בּלע . The following fut. consec. is here not aor., but expressive of 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, i.e., (which is implied in בּלע , expellere ) forcibly, and therefore as by the pains of colic. The lxx, according to whose taste the mention of God here was contrary to decorum, trans. ἐξ οἰκίας (read κοιλίας , according to Cod. Alex. ) αὐτοῦ ἐξελκύσει αὐτὸν ἄγγελος (Theod. δυνάστης ). The perf., Job 20:15 , is in Job 20:16 changed into the imperf. fut. יינק , which more strongly represents the past action as that which has gone before what is now described; and the ασυνδέτως , fut. which follows, describes the consequence which is necessarily and directly involved in it. Psalms 140:4 may be compared with Job 20:16 , Proverbs 23:32 with Job 20:16 . 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.

17 He shall not delight himself in streams,

Like to rivers and brooks of honey and cream.

18 Giving back that for which he laboured, he shall not swallow it;

He shall not rejoice according to the riches he hath gotten.

19 Because he cast down, let the destitute lie helpless;

He shall not, in case he hath seized a house, finish building it.

20 Because he knew no rest in his craving,

He shall not be able to rescue himself with what he most loveth.

As poets sing of the aurea aetas of the paradise-like primeval age: Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant ,

(Note: Ovid, Metam . i. 112, comp. Virgil, Ecl. iv. 30:

Et durae quercus sudabant roscida mella ;