If thou prepare thy heart and stretch out thy hands toward him,
Zophar turns from God's greatness to a condition. Set your heart right, reach out to God, and everything will change. The words sound wise, and in part they are. But they rest on an assumption about Job that the commentators say was false.
Zophar's address moves through a fixed shape, and verse 13 opens its fourth movement. One writer lays out the outline: Job's flood of words rebuked (vv. 1-6), the greatness of God (vv. 7-9), all things open to Him (vv. 10-12), then this:
(4) The call to repent (vv. 13-15). (5) The peaceable results (vv. 16-20).
Everything Zophar has said about God's greatness now bends toward one purpose. He presses Job to repent as a guilty man. The same writer notes what that costs him:
Zophar spoils the dignity of what he had just said. He calls on Job to repent as an evildoer with a store of ill-gotten wealth in his tents. This complete lack of discernment stirs Job to anger. It shows up the shallow nature of the friends' theory.
One commentator weighs the advice apart from the man who gave it:
"If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward Him." Now that was excellent advice. That was just what Job did need — to wait on God until God gave him the answer as to how all this had come upon him. But Zophar's idea was all wrong.
(Kelly quotes an older translation, which reads both halves of the verse as conditions.)
The two actions in the verse are prayer and turning back. Zophar holds them out as Job's one way out of trouble:
Finally, Zophar urges supplication and repentance as the only door of escape for Job, but a sure opening into a bright and prosperous and secure life, if he would avoid the certain doom of the wicked.
The trouble is the sentence Zophar attaches next, about iniquity in the hand. He treats Job as a man clutching secret sins. But the commentators say Job's real problem lay somewhere else entirely:
"If iniquity is in your hand" — that was not what it was. It was not a question of iniquity, but of God dealing with Job's satisfaction with himself. Job was a truly godly, God-fearing man, but he had a high idea of his own character. That is what no soul should ever allow. It is completely wrong for a person to rest in himself, no matter how blameless he may be, and no matter how truly he waits on God day by day. There is no rest in any creature, least of all in ourselves.
So Zophar offered a real cure for an illness Job did not have. Another writer puts the failure in medical terms:
Zophar thought he was giving Job the remedy for his depressed condition. But his diagnosis was totally wrong, so his remedy was not what Job needed.
One commentator starts with Zophar's view of God. Then he asks what happens to a man who tries to prepare his heart and cannot:
These words have a strong flavour of law. They prove very clearly that Zophar had no right sense of God's character. He did not know God. God is not against us, but for us. He is not someone who demands, but someone who gives freely. Zophar says, "If you prepare your heart." But if not, what then? No doubt a man ought to prepare his heart, and if he were right he would. But then he is not right, and so when he sets about preparing his heart, he finds nothing there but evil. He finds himself completely powerless. What is he to do? Zophar cannot tell.
Another writer names this way of thinking, and turns it on the reader:
He can tell Job that if Job were not a sinner, then all would be most blessed with him. That is all that Zophar, or mere human light, can do. This is human religion. I must try not to be a sinner, and then I shall be happy, and God will not be against me. Still a hopeless effort — don't you find it so? You are a sinner. How then can you stand before a holy Judge? There is the difficulty.
One writer sums up where all three friends failed:
They did not know how to present God to Job; and, as a result, they did not know how to lead Job's conscience into the presence of God. Instead of leading him to self-judgment, they only fed a spirit of self-vindication. They did not bring God into the scene. They said some true things, but they did not have the truth.
- The counsel is good. Preparing the heart and reaching out to God is what Job needed. He had to wait until God answered him.
- The assumption is false. Zophar reads Job as an evildoer hiding stolen goods in his tents. That lack of discernment stirs Job to anger.
- The diagnosis misses. Job's problem was not sin in his hand but satisfaction with himself. Zophar aimed a real remedy at the wrong illness.
- The condition has no answer. "If you prepare your heart" — but what if a man tries and finds nothing there but evil, and himself powerless? Zophar cannot say. He never knew that God is not against us, but for us.
- True things are not the truth. The friends never brought God into the scene. So they fed Job's self-defence instead of leading his conscience into God's presence.
If thou put far away the iniquity which is in thy hand, and let not wrong dwell in thy tents;
Zophar tells Job what to do: clean your hands, clear your home, and your suffering will lift. The advice is sound. But he aims it at a man who has done nothing to deserve it. So what is good advice worth when it rests on a false charge?
Job's three visitors each argue from a different base. This verse is the clearest window into Zophar's. One writer sorts them by the ground each man stands on:
In short, Eliphaz went by personal experience. He said, "As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same" (Job 4:8). Bildad is the voice of tradition and the authority of the past. He said, "Inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out" (Job 8:8). Zophar displayed law and religiousness. He said, "If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away … then you will lift up your face without blemish" (Job 11:14-15).
The instruction is not wrong. What is wrong is the picture of Job it takes for granted — a man with sin gripped in his fist, refusing to let go.
Zophar's closing words of counsel (verses 13-20) also have truth in them. One translation renders verse 14, "If you put far away the iniquity which is in your hand." That is, he again assumes, as the others do, that Job is an evil man after all, holding tight to his sins. Here he was wrong. His counsel to put away evil and turn to God was good, and his description of the happy result was correct enough.
If iniquity in the hand was never Job's problem, what was God dealing with? One writer names it:
"If iniquity is in your hand" — that was not what it was. It was not a question of iniquity, but of God dealing with Job's satisfaction with himself. Job was a truly devout, God-fearing man; but he had a high idea of his own character. That is what no soul should ever allow. It is completely wrong for a person to rest in himself. That holds no matter how blameless he may be, and no matter how truly he waits on God day by day. There is no rest in any creature, least of all in ourselves.
Zophar widens the charge from Job's hand to his tents. Now it is not a general call to repent. It is a claim about how Job got his wealth, and that is what breaks his patience.
But Zophar spoils the dignity of what he has just said. He calls on Job to repent as an evildoer with a store of ill-gotten wealth in his tents. This complete lack of discrimination stirs Job to anger. It exposes how shallow the friends' theory is.
The verse hangs on an "if". Zophar builds his whole speech that way: do this, and then that will follow. The "if" shows what he thinks God is like. It also collapses as soon as a man tries to meet it.
These words have a strong flavour of legality. They prove very clearly that Zophar had no right sense of God's character. He did not know God. No one with a true knowledge of God could speak of Him as opening His lips against a poor afflicted sinner. Nor could such a person say He demands anything from a needy, helpless creature. God is not against us, but for us, blessed be His Name for ever! He is not a stern collector of debts, but a generous giver. Then Zophar says, "If you prepare your heart." But if not, what then? A man ought to prepare his heart, but he is not right. So when he sets about preparing his heart, he finds nothing there but evil. He finds himself completely powerless. What is he to do? Zophar cannot tell.
The same writer draws the line that separates accurate statements from help:
They only darkened counsel with words without knowledge. Not one of the three friends understood Job. What is more, they did not know God's character or His purpose in dealing with His dear servant. … Instead of leading him to self-judgment, they only fed a spirit of self-defence. They did not bring God into the scene. They said some true things; but they did not have the truth.
- True things. Zophar's call to put evil away and turn to God is good advice. The fault is not in the words but in who he aims them at.
- True things, wrong man. He assumes Job is holding tight to his sins and storing wealth he gained wrongly. The assumption is false, and it pushes Job into self-defence instead of self-judgment.
- True things, wrong God. Zophar builds everything on "if you do this, then". That presents God as a stern collector of debts, not a generous giver. It leaves a helpless man with no answer.
- True things, wrong problem. God was not dealing with iniquity in Job's hand. He was dealing with Job's satisfaction with himself. No one, however blameless, may rest in himself.
- True things are not the truth. Statements can be accurate and still darken counsel. The test is whether they bring God into the scene.
Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, and thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear
Zophar ends his speech with a promise: get rid of the sin, and the shame and the fear go with it. Everything rests on that "if" — has Zophar judged Job rightly, and can any sufferer meet such a condition?
Each of Job's three friends argues from a different base. This verse is the mark of the third:
Eliphaz went on personal experience. He said, "As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same" (Job 4:8). Bildad is the voice of tradition and the authority of the past. He said, "Inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out" (Job 8:8). Zophar showed law and religiousness. He said, "If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away … then you will lift up your face without blemish" (Job 11:14-15).
The promise hangs on a sin hidden in Job's hand. That was not Job's problem:
"If iniquity is in your hand" — that was not what it was. It was not a question of iniquity, but of God dealing with Job's satisfaction with himself. Job was a truly devout, God-fearing man; but he had a high idea of his own character. That is what no soul should ever allow. It is completely wrong for a person to rest in himself, no matter how blameless he may be, no matter how truly he may wait on God day by day. There is no rest in any creature, least of all in ourselves. It was One who was coming. And now there is One who has come. Zophar goes on to the end of the chapter in very proper language. But his thought was all wrong, because he assumed there was some great wickedness unseen and unknown. Why then did he assume it, if it was not seen and known?
The advice itself is not worthless. The fault lies in the man Zophar aimed it at:
Zophar's closing words of counsel (verses 13-20) also have truth in them. In verse 14 he again assumes, like the others, that Job is after all an evil man, holding tight to his sins. Here he was wrong, though his counsel to put away evil and turn to God was good, and his description of the happy result of doing so was correct enough.
A promise built on conditions shows what its speaker thinks God is like:
These words have a strong flavour of legality. They prove very clearly that Zophar had no right sense of the divine character. He did not know God. No one who truly knows God could speak of Him as opening His lips against a poor afflicted sinner. No one who knows Him could think of Him as demanding anything from a needy, helpless creature. God is not against us, but for us, blessed for ever be His Name! He is not a stern collector of debts, but a generous giver.
A face without blemish is what a guilty person needs and cannot produce. Zophar stops short at that point:
But he is not able to show Job how he can be a sinner and yet be justified. He can say that if Job were not a sinner, then all would be most blessed with him; and that is all that Zophar, or mere human light, can do. This is human religion. I must try not to be a sinner, and then I shall be happy, and God will not be against me. Still a hopeless effort — you find it so, don't you? You are a sinner. How then can you stand before a holy Judge? There is the difficulty.
Job did receive the honour Zophar held out, but by God's road, not Zophar's:
He paints everything in the rosiest colours, as if he knew what God would do for Job. The time did come when Job got richer blessings than those Zophar outlined. And Zophar's word that many would seek Job's favour came true when Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had to humble themselves before this servant of God.
- Standpoint — Zophar speaks for law and religion. Clean hands first, then a face lifted without blemish.
- Misread — The "if" assumed hidden sin in Job's hand. The real issue was Job's satisfaction with himself, and no one can rest in himself.
- Sound advice, wrong address — Put away evil, turn to God, and the happy outcome follows. The error was aiming that word at a man who was not holding on to sin.
- Missing God — A God who demands and speaks against the sufferer is not the God who is for us. He is a generous giver, not a stern collector.
- Missing gospel — Zophar can say a righteous man would be blessed. He cannot say how a sinner is justified. In the end God gave Job richer blessing than Zophar promised, and his accusers had to bow.
For thou shalt forget misery; as waters that are passed away shalt thou remember it;
These words are a promise, not a fact: Zophar, the third of Job's friends, tells Job what life could look like if he admits hidden sin and turns from it. But is the promise true, and was Zophar the man to make it?
The bright words come at the end of a call to repent, and the call rests on guilt that Zophar never names.
He too believes that Job is a wicked man who has hidden iniquity, and that this must explain his affliction. So he turns preacher and calls on him to repent. Set your heart right, he tells Job; stretch out your hands towards Him. Put iniquity away, do not let iniquity stay in your tents! He talks as if he is very sure, more so than Eliphaz and Bildad, that Job is guilty of much sin. Then he draws a charming picture of the blessed results if Job confesses and repents. He would forget his misery "as waters that have passed away."
The picture is of floodwater that has already run past. One commentator ties the beauty of that picture to the emptiness of the charge behind it.
The ending is like singing songs to someone with a heavy heart. Zophar paints a beautiful outcome — one as imaginary as the sins he charged Job with. Job would then forget his present troubles, which would slip past him like flowing water. His darkness would turn to light. He would have safety and prosperity, and the men who had slandered him would bow before him.
Zophar offers a cure. The trouble is what he thinks he is curing.
He does not say what Job has been guilty of, but is sure he must be guilty of something… Zophar thought he was giving Job the remedy for his depressed condition, but his diagnosis was totally wrong and his remedy was therefore not what Job needed.
Zophar has no doubt what God's verdict on Job will be. That kind of certainty turns back on the person who holds it.
Zophar had not a doubt what the sentence would be. He had not learned that we should not judge, or we will be judged, and that our judgments really judge us. A sound and gracious judgment proves that we dwell in God, because we dwell in love and walk in the light. A harsh judgment shows, just as clearly, how far we are ruled by thoughts and feelings that come from nothing higher than self.
What Zophar described did eventually happen, but not because his theory was right.
He paints everything in the rosiest colours, as if he knew what God would do for Job. The time did come when Job got richer blessings than the ones Zophar described. And what Zophar said — "many shall make suit to you" in the older wording, that is, many would beg for Job's favour — did come true when Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had to humble themselves before this Servant of God.
The restoration Job received came in an order Zophar's formula could not produce.
God blessed Job richly. He restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. He did this when Job had prayed for his friends — and not till then… Yet God did not let that tide of blessing roll in on Job again until he had been deeply changed in spirit and character. At last Job was brought near to God. He then acted as a priest in a way that reflected the goodness and kindness of God, and everything outward changed.
- Diagnosis. Zophar assumes a hidden sin he cannot name, so his cure targets an illness Job does not have.
- Prescription. Put sin away, he says, and the misery drains off like floodwater that has passed. It is a lovely promise built on a false charge.
- Judgment. He is sure of God's verdict on another man. A harsh judgment measures the one who makes it.
- Reversal. His words about many seeking Job's favour did come true — when the three friends had to humble themselves before Job.
- Order. The blessing returned only after God had changed Job and Job had prayed for his friends. It was never payment for a formula.
And life shall arise brighter than noonday; though thou be enshrouded in darkness, thou shalt be as the morning,
Zophar ends his first speech with a picture of the future. Put away your sin, he tells Job, and your darkest days will shine like midday. That raises two questions. Is the promise true? And is Zophar offering it to the right man, for the right reason?
This verse sits in the closing part of Zophar's speech, where he paints the reward. One writer thinks little of that picture:
The conclusion is like singing songs to someone with a heavy heart. Zophar paints a beautiful outcome — as imaginary as the sins he charged Job with. He would then forget his present troubles, which would slip by him like passing waters. His darkness would be turned to light. He would have security and prosperity, and those who had slandered him would bow before him.
The picture is of a life rising, not just a life improving. An older translation brings that out more strongly. Where the ESV has the darkness becoming like the morning, it reads:
And the future shall rise brighter than noonday; you shall soar — you shall be as the morning.
Zophar never names a single sin. He assumes one is there, then prescribes a cure. This verse is the result he promises:
Zophar thought he was giving Job the remedy for his depressed condition. But his diagnosis was completely wrong, so his remedy was not what Job needed.
Zophar's counsel has real truth in it. The trouble is the charge hidden underneath it:
Zophar's final words of counsel (verses 13-20) also have truth in them. Verse 14 in the New Translation begins, "If you put far away the iniquity which is in your hand." That is, he again assumes, like the others, that Job is after all an evil man, holding tight to his sins. Here he was wrong. His counsel to put away evil and turn to God was still good, and his description of the happy result of doing so was correct enough.
Reduce this verse to a formula and you get a bargain: behave, and life turns bright. One writer names that bargain for what it is, and shows where it collapses:
He can tell that if Job were not a sinner, then things would be most blessed with him; and that is all that Zophar, or mere human light, can do. This is human religion. I must try not to be a sinner, and then I shall be happy, and God will not be against me. It is still a useless effort, isn't it? You are a sinner. How then can you stand before a holy Judge? There is the difficulty.
Zophar aimed his counsel at hidden sin. One writer says Job's real trouble lay somewhere else:
"If iniquity be in your hand" — that was not what it was. It was not a question of iniquity, but of God dealing with Job's satisfaction with himself. Job was a truly godly, God-fearing man; but he had a high idea of his own character. That is what no soul should ever allow.
The book does end with Job's darkness turning to light. But the order of events undoes Zophar's formula:
God blessed Job abundantly, turning his captivity and giving him twice as much as he had before. He did this when Job had prayed for his friends — and not till then… Yet God held back that tide of blessing. It came only after Job had been changed deep down, in spirit and character.
- Position. This verse is the payoff of Zophar's speech. It is the reward he promises if Job repents of sins Zophar cannot name.
- Picture. This is not mild relief. It is sunrise: trouble remembered like water already gone, life rising brighter than noonday.
- Prescription. The remedy sounds right, and the outcome is real. But the diagnosis behind it is wrong, so the counsel misses the man.
- Problem. Turn the verse into a rule and you get human religion: stop sinning and be happy. It leaves the real question untouched. How can a sinner stand before a holy Judge?
- Proof. Job's morning did come. But it came only after a deep change in him, and after he had prayed for the friends who accused him — God's route, not Zophar's.
And thou shalt have confidence, because there shall be hope; and having searched about [thee], thou shalt take rest in safety.
Zophar ends his speech by holding out a bright picture to Job: put your sin away, and life will come back — confidence, safety, quiet sleep. But was that promise true? And did it fit Job's case at all?
The security of verse 18 is not a free gift. It comes at the end of a list of conditions, and one writer tests those conditions against Job's real case.
Zophar thinks he has proved Job's guilt. He also thinks he has shown Job something of the greatness of God. So he urges Job to change his ways. He does not say what Job is guilty of, but he is sure Job must be guilty of something. "If you prepare your heart … if iniquity is in your hand, put it far away … Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear" … Zophar thought he was giving Job the remedy for his depressed state. But his diagnosis was completely wrong, so his remedy was not what Job needed.
Zophar also reasons backwards. Job once had this very life, and he has it no longer. Zophar draws his conclusion from that change.
He would be secure and take rest in safety, he would lie down without fear, and many would seek his favour (vv.18-19). Before Job's deep trial, many had indeed sought Job's favour. Zophar thought that since this was no longer true, the only reason could be Job's falling into sin.
The picture is warm and generous. It is useless because it fits a man who does not exist — the guilty Job of Zophar's imagination.
The conclusion is like singing songs to someone with a heavy heart. Zophar paints a beautiful outcome — as imaginary as the sins he charged Job with.
The flaw is not in the words about hope and safety. It lies in the thinking behind them: blessing as payment owed for good behaviour.
Zophar replies, trying to convict him. He presses on Job that God "exacts of you less than your guilt deserves." If there were no iniquity, there would be present mercies. "You will lift up your face without blemish … and take your rest in security." Zophar makes man's acts the measure of God's dealings. He does not see that man is evil in himself, and therefore far from God, with no claim to any blessing.
Zophar's advice is still the most common religious advice in the world. It fails at the one point that matters.
He can say that if Job were not a sinner, then it would be most blessed for him. That is all that Zophar, or mere human light, can do. This is human religion. I must try not to be a sinner, and then I shall be happy, and God will not be against me. It is still a wasted effort. You find that, don't you? You are a sinner. How then can you stand before a holy Judge? There is the difficulty.
Zophar points Job to the wrong place. He tells Job to find steadiness in a clean record, but God was working on something else.
"If iniquity is in your hand" — that was not the issue. It was not a question of iniquity at all. God was dealing with Job's satisfaction with himself. Job was a truly devout, God-fearing man; but he had a high idea of his own character. That is what no soul ought ever to allow. It is altogether wrong for a person to rest in himself, no matter how spotless he may be, no matter how he may truly wait upon God day by day. There is no rest in any creature, least of all in ourselves.
Job could not reach the confidence his friends held out to him. One writer sets their offer beside the hope we have now.
His friends might hold out fresh, bright hopes if he would repent, turning night into day … But as for his own hope, the grave was his house, and his bed was spread in darkness … What a blessed contrast to such gloomy words from a believer is the strong encouragement we have! We have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. It is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and it enters the inner place behind the curtain.
- The offer. Zophar promises hope, safety and quiet sleep. But it all waits at the end of a list of conditions, and he never names one sin Job committed.
- The false diagnosis. Zophar read Job's lost prosperity backwards as proof of hidden guilt. The diagnosis was wrong, so the remedy was not what Job needed.
- The false measure. Zophar makes man's acts the measure of God's dealings. He never sees that man in himself has no claim to any blessing.
- The false cure. "Try not to be a sinner, and then God will not be against me" is human religion. It collapses because you are a sinner.
- The real rest. No creature can give rest, least of all ourselves. The hope that holds is already set before us — an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast.
Yea, thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; and many shall seek thy favour.
Zophar has told Job to put away his sin, and here he paints the reward: quiet sleep and neighbours seeking his favour. The picture is lovely, but Zophar holds it out to a man whose suffering had nothing to do with hidden sin, so the promise rests on a charge that was never true.
This verse belongs to the closing part of Zophar's speech, where he describes the happy life he says repentance would bring. Set beside Job's real condition, that picture wounds more than it comforts:
The conclusion is like singing songs to someone who is heavy of heart. Zophar paints a beautiful outcome — as imaginary as the sins he charged Job with. Job would then forget his present troubles, which would slip past him like water flowing away. His darkness would turn to light. He would have security and prosperity, and those who had slandered him before would bow to him. Little did Zophar and his friend dream that they would have to come to this. The closing verse is a warning which Zophar no doubt applies to Job.
The strange thing about Zophar's closing lines is that nothing in them is false in itself. Turning to God and putting away evil really does lead to rest. The error lies in the assumption buried in verse 14 — that Job was gripping his sin and refusing to let go:
Zophar's final words of counsel (verses 13-20) also have truth in them. Verse 14 in the New Translation begins, "If you put far away the iniquity which is in your hand." So he again assumes, like the others, that Job is after all an evil man, holding tight to his sins. Here he was wrong. Yet his counsel to put away evil and turn to God was good, and his description of the happy result was correct enough.
So a right remedy can still be useless. Another writer notes that Zophar never names a single sin. Yet he builds his whole cure on the certainty that one exists:
He does not say what Job has been guilty of, but is sure he must be guilty of something… Zophar thought he was giving Job the remedy for his depressed condition, but his diagnosis was completely wrong. So his remedy was not what Job needed.
Why did Zophar reach for this particular image of many seeking Job's favour? Because it described the man Job used to be. Zophar looked at the crowds that once courted Job, saw them gone, and drew a straight line from the loss to sin:
He would be secure and take rest in safety, he would lie down without fear, and many would court his favour (vv.18-19). Before Job's deep trial, many indeed had sought Job's favour. Since this was not true now, Zophar thought the only reason could be Job's falling into sin.
The promise, in other words, is an accusation turned inside out.
There is an irony in this verse that only the end of the book uncovers. The very thing Zophar predicted did happen — and he was among the ones it happened to:
He paints everything in the rosiest colours, as if he knew what God would do for Job. The time did come when Job received richer blessings than those Zophar outlined. And what Zophar said — that many would court Job's favour, or entreat him — did come true. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had to humble themselves before this servant of God.
Behind Zophar's sunny forecast lies a settled verdict about another man's heart. One commentator shows what such judging costs the judge, and what it reveals about him:
He had not learned that we should not judge, or we will be judged. Our judgments really judge ourselves. If they are solid and gracious, they prove that we dwell in God, as dwelling in love and walking according to light. If they are harsh, they show in the same measure how far thoughts and feelings that rise no higher than self are ruling us.
- Position. The verse sits at the close of Zophar's speech — the reward he says waits for Job if he repents.
- Diagnosis. The counsel to turn to God and put away evil was sound. But the charge of hidden sin was false, so the remedy missed the man.
- Reasoning. Once many sought Job's favour; now none did. Zophar read that loss backwards and called it proof of sin.
- Reversal. The promise came true — but it was the three friends who had to humble themselves before Job.
- Warning. A hard verdict on another's heart judges the one who makes it. It shows whether love or self is at work in him.
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and [all] refuge shall vanish from them, and their hope [shall be] the breathing out of life.
Zophar ends his first speech with a threat dressed as a warning. The wicked man's eyes fail. Every escape route closes. His hope shrinks to one last breath. The words are true of the wicked as a class. But Zophar aims them at Job, whose case he never understood — and true words land badly in the wrong place.
The tone of this closing line matches the speaker.
Zophar was likely the youngest of the three men, and what he lacks in maturity he makes up for in bitter accusation against Job. He did not have Eliphaz's restraint or Bildad's skill in argument, and he does not hold back his bad temper. He did not appeal to what he had seen, as Eliphaz did, or to the traditions Bildad had learned. He appealed to his own intuition.
That confidence has a cause.
The fact is that a man who bases his argument on his own intuition is always very dogmatic and sure of himself. He has to be. It makes up for the lack of outside evidence that would back up his claims.
The three clauses of the verse describe a man whose sight, shelter and expectation all give out together. One rendering keeps the force of the final image — hope that amounts to nothing more than exhaling:
But the eyes of the wicked waste away, and refuge vanishes from them, and their hope is a breathing out of the soul.
Placed at the end of a list of promised blessings, the line works as an ultimatum:
Before Job's deep trial, many had indeed sought Job's favour. Since this was no longer true, Zophar thought the only reason could be that Job had fallen into sin. He implies this when he adds, "But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last." He is warning Job that if he does not take Zophar's advice he will not escape, but end in dreadful judgment.
Turn from evil and seek God, and things will go well — that much of Zophar's speech stands. The flaw sits underneath it, in an assumption he never proved.
Zophar's final words of counsel also have truth in them. Verse 14 begins, "If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away." That is, like the others, he again assumes that Job is after all an evil man, holding tight to his sins. Here he was wrong, though his counsel to put away evil and turn to God was good, and his description of the happy result of so doing was correct enough.
The problem with all three men ran deeper than tone.
They had no true grasp of God's character, so they could not understand His dealings with a soul. They had no proper sense of sin. So they did not know that if God is going to bless man, it must be wholly on the ground of grace. They did not know how to meet Job's case. They had said many true things, yet not one single right thing that fitted Job, because they did not understand him.
The problem was not that they lacked light; it was that they never noticed they lacked it.
Ignorance in a believer is not surprising. But it is sad when someone forgets the need of light from above and dares to judge anything before the time, before the Lord comes. He will bring the hidden things of darkness to light and make clear the purposes of hearts, and then each will have his praise from God.
When the book closes, the man Zophar threatened is the one whose prayer his accusers need.
The Lord restored Job's fortunes when he prayed for his friends, and gave him twice as much as he had before. The friends were only silenced. Job opens his mouth in full confession. So he wins forgiveness not only for himself but for them too, by praying for them.
As a general truth about the wicked, the words stand. Scripture sets a different expectation beside them.
For a wicked man death has a final word: he perishes. But after death, what? Hebrews 9:27 gives the solemn answer: after death comes judgment. So for the unjust, hope perishes too. Believers have a hope that is "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (Heb. 6:19).
- Hope threatened. Zophar ends his speech by telling Job that a man who will not repent has nothing left to expect but his dying breath.
- Hope misjudged. The threat rests on intuition, not evidence — a self-confident man supplying certainty where proof is missing.
- Hope misapplied. The counsel to put away evil was sound; the assumption that Job was clinging to evil was false. The friends said many true things, but none of them fitted Job.
- Hope reversed. The friends ended in silence. Job confessed, prayed for them, and won forgiveness for them as well as himself.
- Hope secured. The wicked man's expectation does perish; the believer's hope is an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast.