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.”
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 man behind the threat
The tone of this closing line matches the speaker.
Leslie M. GrantZophar 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.
F. B. HoleThe 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 sting in the promise
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:
William KellyBut 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:
Leslie M. GrantBefore 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.
Right counsel, wrong patient
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.
F. B. HoleZophar'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 friends' whole failure in one line
The problem with all three men ran deeper than tone.
J. N. DarbyThey 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.
William KellyIgnorance 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.
Where the threat finally landed
When the book closes, the man Zophar threatened is the one whose prayer his accusers need.
William KellyThe 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.
Leslie M. GrantFor 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).
Summary
- 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.