To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.
Zophar answers Job a second time, and his whole speech makes one point: the wicked man's good days end, and God ends them. In verse 23 the blow falls while the man is still eating, and every reader has to ask whether this is true of God — and whether it was true of Job.
A speech made in haste
Before the picture itself, look at the speaker. One writer reads Zophar's rush to answer as a sign of weakness, not strength:
Samuel RidoutZophar springs to reply, as a young man would. He felt he had plenty of thoughts to meet all Job's statements, and to convict him of the wickedness they charged against him. He is not the first man to mistake heat for argument. His haste to express his feelings shows poverty of thought, not the weight of truth. ... In fact, wounded pride may be the real reason for his eagerness to speak.
The picture in the verse
Verse 23 sets two acts side by side: a man filling his belly, and God sending His anger. One writer follows the scene closely:
William KellyLook how Zophar paints the final scene! At the height of the man's plenty, his troubles come: every wretch stretches out a hand against him. God will give him plenty, but it will be the burning of His wrath, raining it on him with his food.
Aimed at Job
Zophar was not teaching in general terms. He had one man in view, and Job felt it:
Leslie M. GrantThe man means to fill his stomach and satisfy himself. But God would cast on him the fury of His wrath, and rain His anger on him while he is eating (v.23). Job felt that this was in effect what God was doing to him. Zophar seemed glad to "rub it in," to make Job all the more miserable. But this could not persuade Job that he was wicked, for he knew such accusations against him were false.
Where the reasoning breaks down
Zophar's system is simple. God is righteous, some people are wicked, so God punishes them now. That last word, "now," is where he fails:
William KellyZophar holds to this great fact: there is a righteous God above, and there are unrighteous, wicked people below. And God always deals with these wicked people now. That was not true. God has always allowed a large part of the world to seem to prosper in their evil. The reason is that the time of judgment has not yet come. There may be judgments. There may be exceptional dealings with the wicked, just as Job's case was very exceptional — in the severity of his trial, and in the way God challenged Satan to do his very worst. And God was secretly holding Job up, even while Job was finding fault with Him and thinking He was hard on him.
What Zophar left out
Zophar's picture of the wicked man is accurate. Two things are missing from it:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe description of the wicked is great. No one can fault what he says about those who are ungodly... In the end, wrath comes upon him. Such is the portion of the wicked man from God. But the serious mistake Zophar made is twofold. 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!" His second mistake: he does not consider for a moment what Job has said — words that could not come from the lips of an ungodly person, but from one who knows God.
The damage of misapplied truth
The danger is not only in what is false. Truth itself can be turned into a weapon:
William KellyTrue things, misunderstood and misapplied, may do more harm than many a false thing. Misapplied truth lends the apparent authority of God to an error, and that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If someone says a foolish thing, or a plainly false one, people dismiss it. But no believer can take the truth of God lightly. So when the truth of God is misused — when someone applies it to crush a person who is the object of God's deep concern at that very moment — how foreign and offensive to His mind!
Commentators differ over how far the friends' words can be defended. Some say their principles were right and only the use they made of them was wrong. Others hold that the real difference was this: Job "had spoken rightly of God; and his friends had not" (Frederick W. Grant).
Summary
- Haste. Zophar hurries to answer, and speed here is not conviction but thin thinking dressed as force.
- Picture. God fills the self-satisfied man — not with food but with burning wrath, raining down on him mid-meal.
- Target. The whole speech means one thing: "You are that man" — and Job knew the charge was false.
- Error. His system assumes God settles every account now. In fact God lets much evil prosper, because the time of judgment has not come.
- Warning. True words aimed at the wrong person do more harm than plain lies. They borrow God's authority to crush someone God deeply cares for.