Bible Chapter Summary
Job 20 Summary
Zophar's Final Word on the Wicked
Zophar responds with urgency, stating that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment, though his excellency mount to the heavens. The wicked man flies away as a dream and cannot be found; those who saw him say, Where is he? His children seek to please the poor, restoring their goods, and his bones lie down in the dust filled with the sin of his youth. Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, his meat turns to gall of asps within him. He shall vomit up riches, suck the poison of asps, lose all his substance, and suffer destruction by the sword and wrath of God until all darkness consumes his tabernacle.
Key themes
Key verses
Job 20:5-9
“That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.”
Job 20:12-16
“Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.”
Job 20:15-18
“He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. That 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.”
Job 20:28-29
“The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.”
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