One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,
Zophar has just insisted that the wicked always come to a visible, crashing end. Job answers by pointing at two deaths — one man comfortable and untroubled, the other embittered — and asking what such deaths prove.
The argument Job is answering
Zophar had made ruin the fixed rule for wicked men. Job answers with the opposite evidence — though he is still far from understanding God's ways himself.
The Bible TreasuryJob 20 — Zophar now presents to Job, in the most emphatic way, the utter and overwhelming ruin of the wicked. He denounces him without pity. Heaven will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. Job replies (Job 21) by detailing the prosperity of the wicked, to show that Zophar must be in error. And yet, though he knows his friends' reproaches are unfounded, he has no clear idea of God's will, or of any order or purpose in His dealings.
What the words describe
"Full vigor" and "wholly at ease and secure" describe a man whose life never breaks down before it ends. He loses nothing along the way. The next verses set a second man beside him, whose life was the reverse.
Leslie M. GrantBecause "one dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure" (v.23). He keeps his possessions intact, and his health holds up until he dies (v.24). On the other hand, another wicked man dies in bitterness, after a whole life that was miserable. In the end "they lie down alike in the dust." The end of the one is the same as the other, though their lives on earth were opposite. Who can answer why?
Two cups, one grave
Both men end in the same dust, so the way a life ends is no verdict on the life. That was the mistake Job's friends were making about him.
William KellyLook at these two men, each with a full cup, one of happiness, the other of misery; both lying dead together. Appearances prove nothing except the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.
Half a truth is still not the truth
Zophar's principle was not a lie. It was a fragment, and a fragment does no spiritual good to the man who holds it.
William KellyWhat Zophar and the others pressed was only half a truth. Now half a truth never sanctifies. What you leave out is perhaps of equal, or even greater, importance, and there was just the difference. With all his defects, Job really was clinging to the truth. He looked at it with a larger heart and a more exercised conscience.
Job himself was not blind to the other half of the truth.
William KellyHe insists that the present world is no expression of God's moral government. But he also admits that in the middle of men's seeming prosperity a divine blow falls on them. In a moment their candle goes out. So he does allow for exceptional dealings.
The graveside verdict of onlookers
That shared grave still shapes what people say at funerals: whatever the life was, the man must be fine.
William Kelly"Another dies in the bitterness of his soul, and never eats with pleasure. They will lie down alike in the dust" — and the careless world goes to their funeral. It thinks they are both all right, that it is all right with them both. That is what people call "judging with charity" — charitable judgment! They hope everybody goes to heaven, unless they are too bad — openly wicked!
Why the accounts stay open
Job's answer to the puzzle is that the reckoning has not happened yet. An easy death is not an acquittal; it is a delay.
Leslie M. GrantThen Job speaks of what his friends had entirely missed, that is, the judgment of the future. "For the wicked are spared for the day of doom" (v.30). "Spared" is the right translation here. It shows that God now spares them trouble because a later "day of doom" is coming. God lets them hide from punishment now, but He will bring them out in the day of His wrath.
Summary
- Question. Zophar claimed certain ruin for the wicked. Job points at the wicked who die untroubled, "detailing the prosperity of the wicked, to show that Zophar must be in error."
- Fact. One man's health and possessions hold to the last; another dies in bitterness. Two opposite lives, and no one on earth can say why.
- Level. Both "lie down alike in the dust." The way a man dies proves nothing except "the haste and folly of those who judge before the time."
- Half. Zophar's rule was true sometimes, false as a law. "Half a truth never sanctifies," so the man with the tidy answer helped nobody.
- Day. A peaceful death is a reprieve, not a verdict. The wicked are "spared for the day of doom," and God settles the accounts after death.