Job 20:18

He has swallowed wealth, and he will vomit it up: God will drive it out of his belly again… He will not gaze on streams, on flowing rivers of honey and butter. What he worked for, he will give back, and not swallow. It matches the property he gained by trade, and he does not rejoice.

So the wicked man will not see what he depended on in the past, "the rivers flowing with honey and cream." What he worked for will not support him now (v.18). From the profits of his past business he will get no enjoyment.

What he grasped from others he must now give up, and his riches can bring him no joy. King Ahab went down to look at the vineyard he had gained by murdering Naboth, and there he had to hear the prophet announce his doom. Like him, this man can get no joy from what he owns.

Zophar is very vivid, and correct, in describing the plight of the wicked man. This section shows that man's wickedness comes back on himself. Evil may be sweet in his mouth, and he all but hides it under his tongue. He is willing to speak wickedness instead of judging it and turning from it… What he swallows becomes like cobra venom.

He has only himself to blame, and he is reaping what he sowed. The poison comes from his own insides… His riches, gained by evil, will be torture to his final days. All this is solemnly true. God is not arbitrary in punishing the wicked; they store up wrath for themselves "on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed."

Reading Job 20 we can see that under his statements about various acts of wickedness lay the hint that Job had been guilty of them. He was the man who had worked to swallow down the property of others and to oppress the poor… 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, to make up for the lack of outside evidence that would back up his claims.

Of course this may be true of some wicked men, but to charge Job with such crime was itself a repulsive crime.

They press the teaching that God's government of this earth is a full measure and display of His righteousness, and of a matching righteousness in man. That teaching shows complete ignorance of what God's righteousness is, and of His ways… Yet they do say many true and ordinary things, which even the Spirit of God accepts as right.

There 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 quietly holding Job up even while Job was finding fault with Him and thinking He was very hard on him to allow all this. But God held him up not only for his own good, but for ours.