His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
Zophar's second speech paints one picture: the wicked man rises high, then vanishes. Verse 11 is its last stroke, and the real question is whether that picture fits every case — and whether it ever fitted Job.
Heaven to the grave
One writer traces the whole arc, from the man's head in the clouds to his bones laid low in the dust:
Samuel RidoutMen will miss him, and ask in vain, Where is he? Like a passing dream of the night he is gone; the eyes that once looked on him see him no more... His bones, once full of youthful vigour (as the revised translation suggests), are now laid low in their parent dust. The section begins with heaven and ends with the grave! Such is the downward path of those who know not God.
Strength that cannot outlive the man
The force of the line is that the very vitality a man counts on goes down with him. What looked like a reserve of life turns out to be part of the funeral.
Leslie M. GrantBut his bones that were once full of fruitful strength will be reduced to the dust of death.
One rule applied to every case
Zophar holds one rule: God always deals with the wicked now, in this life. One writer answers that the facts do not bear this out:
William KellySo Zophar holds to this. There is a righteous God above. There are unrighteous, wicked people below. And God always deals with these wicked people now. That was not true. God has always let a large part of the world seem to prosper in their evil, and the reason is that the time of judgment has not yet come.
So an early death is no proof of unusual guilt. Another writer shows how varied God's dealings really are:
Samuel RidoutMany evil men go on for years in outward prosperity. They pass to their account in another world with little apparent change... God varies His dealings with men, so that in every possible way they are left without excuse. He has tried swift judgment, long patience, chastening and prosperity, so that by some means men may be led to repentance. The apostle sums it up like this: "The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later" (1 Tim. 5:24). Our Lord rebukes the tendency to regard sudden death as a mark of special sin (Luke 13:1-5).
True words, wrong man
The picture of the wicked is not in dispute. What the commentators reject is aiming it at Job:
Leslie M. GrantThere was a good measure of truth in what he said, but his inferring that Job was identified with such a class of evil-doers was not only unfair; it was inexcusably false.
A speech with no pity in it
Job had asked his friends for compassion. What came back was a portrait of doom with his name written under it.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe description of the wicked is great. No one can find fault with what he says about the ungodly... But Zophar made two serious mistakes. Job had pleaded for pity. Not a word of pity comes from Zophar's lips. The whole address is meant to tell Job, "You are that man!" Here is the second mistake. He never weighs Job's words for a moment. They could not come from the lips of an ungodly person. They could only come from one who knows God.
The possibility he never weighed
Zophar's rule left out one possibility. God may deal with His own children through trouble, for their good.
William KellyIs that all that Zophar had ever learnt? Did he know of no dealings of God for the trial and good of His children here below? Had he no thought of God disciplining us?
What Zophar could not see was what God was quietly doing with Job:
William KellyThere may be judgments. There may be exceptional dealings with the wicked, just as Job's case was a very exceptional dealing in the severity of his trial. And God was secretly holding Job up, even when Job was finding fault with Him and thinking He was very hard on him to allow all this. Job was held up not only for his own good, but for ours.
Summary
- Picture — The verse ends a sweep that starts in the clouds and finishes in the dust. The strength of a man's best years lies down in the grave with him.
- Part — Zophar takes one real pattern and makes it the whole rule. Sin does shorten some lives. But many evil men prosper for years, because the time of judgment has not yet come.
- Proof — Sudden loss is not evidence of special guilt; some sins go ahead to judgment, others only appear later.
- Person — His words about the wicked are accurate. Applying them to Job was unfair, and unfair words turn evil when aimed at a grieving man whose guilt was never proved.
- Pity — Job asked for compassion and got a verdict. Zophar never saw that God was secretly holding this suffering man up — for his good, and for ours.