he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Zophar answers in a hurry, and his second speech paints one picture only. A man whose head touches the clouds is swept away like dung, and those who watched him ask where he went. The question is not whether the picture is true. It is whether it fits the man sitting in front of him.
Speaking in haste
Zophar names what drives him: his own thoughts, and his hurry to speak. One writer notes where that hurry leads:
William Kelly"My thoughts make me answer, and this is why I hurry." Yes, and that is just where haste usually lands us. It is easy for those who are not in trouble to speak, and to suspect evil of a man that is in the depths.
From the clouds to the dust
The image rests on a household practice Zophar's hearers knew well. One writer explains it:
Samuel RidoutIn his imagination his hopes may have risen to the heavens and his head to the clouds. But he burns away like fuel stored up for the winter. The well-known custom in the East of preparing cattle dung for this purpose explains the picture used here. Men will miss him, and ask in vain, Where is he?... The section begins with heaven and ends with the grave!
Another writer sets that end against the opposite case:
William KellyHowever high he lifts his head, he perishes forever, like the most offensive thing that men sweep away, so that those who see him say, Where is he? It is the fullest contrast with the positive blessing of faith: the one who does the will of God remains forever; the one who does not is like a dream, or a vision in the night. Seen once, he is never in sight again; his place knows him no more.
True words aimed at the wrong man
Commentators agree the description itself is sound. The fault is where Zophar aims it:
Samuel RidoutHe denounces evil with great force, leaving no room for doubt that he means Job. He describes the certain doom of the wicked in language so violent that it soon uses up all he has to say... Everything he says is true. His own unforgivable error is that he tries to apply it to a righteous man.
Applied to Job, the charge collapses at both ends — the pride Zophar assumes, and the ruin he predicts:
Leslie M. GrantThese words were cruelly unfair to Job. He was at fault in the way he spoke of God, yet no one can rightly call his words arrogant. Zophar speaks as though Job's arrogance was extreme, and he even predicts that Job would perish forever! Of course this was completely false about Job, though it is true of the wicked.
A rule too small for God
Zophar's whole system assumes God settles every account now. That is where it breaks:
William KellySo Zophar keeps 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 allowed a large part of the world to seem to prosper in their evil, and the reason is that the time of judgment has not yet come.
One writer traces the mistake to timing, and sees it far beyond Job's friends:
William KellyThe friends jumped ahead of the time. They fixed their blinded eyes on the present, as the Christian world does, instead of waiting, as Job did, for the resurrection and the kingdom... Look at these two men, each with a full cup, one of happiness, the other of misery; both lying dead together. Appearances prove nothing but the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.
No pity in it
Nothing in the speech answers what Job had asked for:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe description of the wicked is great; no fault can be found with what he says about those who are ungodly... 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 speech is meant to tell Job, "You are that man!" And the 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.
Summary
- True. The doom Zophar describes is real. The man who lifts his head to the clouds is swept away like dung, and no one can find him again.
- Misaimed. The words are sound; the error is turning them on a righteous man.
- Hasty. Zophar names his motive himself — his thoughts, and his rush to speak. Speaking fast is easy when the suffering is someone else's.
- Premature. His rule is that God always judges the wicked now. But God lets much of the world prosper in evil, because the day of judgment has not yet come.
- Pitiless. Job asked for pity. Not a word of it came back — only a portrait of himself as the doomed man.