Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 11:20

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 11:20. The eyes of the wicked shall fail — They shall be continually looking out for help and deliverance; but their expectation shall be cut off.

And they shall not escape — They shall receive the punishment due to their deserts; for God has his eye continually upon them. מנהם ומנוס אבד umanos abad minnehem, literally, "And escape perishes from them." Flight from impending destruction is impossible.

And their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost. — ותקותם מפח נפש vethikratham mappach naphesh, "And their hope an exhalation of breath," or a mere wish of the mind. They retain their hope to the last; and the last breath they breathe is the final and eternal termination of their hope. They give up their hope and their ghost together; for a vain hope cannot enter into that place where shadow and representation exist not; all being substance and reality. And thus endeth Zophar the Naamathite; whose premises were in general good, his conclusions legitimate, but his application of them to Job's case totally erroneous; because he still proceeded on the ground that Job was a wicked man, if not ostensibly, yet secretly; and that the sufferings he was undergoing were the means by which God was unmasking him to the view of men.

But, allowing that Job had been a bad man, the exhortations of Zophar were well calculated to enforce repentance and excite confidence in the Divine mercy. Zophar seems to have had a full conviction of the all-governing providence of God; and that those who served him with an honest and upright heart would be ever distinguished in the distribution of temporal good. He seems however to think that rewards and punishments were distributed in this life, and does not refer, at least very evidently, to a future state. Probably his information on subjects of divinity did not extend much beyond the grave; and we have much cause to thank God for a clearer dispensation. Deus nobis haec otia fecit. God grant that we may make a good use of it!

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Zophar speaks (11:1-20)

Angered at what he considers to be Job’s irreverent talk, Zophar can keep silent no longer (11:1-3). He rebukes Job for claiming to be an innocent victim of injustice, and asserts that if Job really suffered according to his sin, his suffering would be much worse (4-6). God’s wisdom is limitless and therefore his judgments must be true. People should neither oppose him nor expect to understand his ways (7-10). No one can deceive God, for he sees people as they really are. Only stupid people ask the sorts of questions Job has been asking (11-12).
What Job must do, says Zophar, is acknowledge his sin and turn from it (13-14). In return God will bless him with a genuinely clear conscience and a feeling of security and confidence. The miserable past will be forgotten; a bright future is assured (15-19). But if he stubbornly refuses to repent, Job can expect only increased suffering, which will lead finally to death (20).
The impression we gain from the speeches of Zophar is that he is the shallowest thinker of the three. Not surprisingly, he is also the most dogmatic and hot tempered. He has no experience such as Eliphaz’s dream to support him; he does not have Bildad’s knowledge of teachings handed down from the past; but he is totally confident that his view is right and all others wrong.

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

ZOPHAR PROMISES RESTORATION IF JOB WILL CONFESS AND REPENT

"If thou set thy heart aright, And stretch out thy hands toward him; If iniquity be in thy hand, put it away, And let righteousness dwell in thy tents. Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; Yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear: For thou shalt forget thy misery; Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away. And thy life shall be clearer than the noonday; though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure because there is hope; Yea, thou shalt search about thee, and shalt take thy rest in safety. And thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; Yea, many shall make suit unto thee. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, And they shall have no way to flee; and their hope shall be the giving up of the ghost."

"If thou set thy heart aright" "The word thou in this place is emphatic, carrying the implication that, "If thou with all thy wickedness, if even thou, wilt abandon it, thou shalt be restored."International Critical Commentary, Job, p. 109.

"Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning" "This is a remarkable antithesis to what Job had said back in Job 10:21 f. Job's future need not be a day of darkness whose very noon is night."Ibid., p. 110. It may be, if only Job will confess and repent, a brighter day than any ordinary day at noon, "Whose very night is as bright as the morning."Ibid.

What comfort could such an exhortation have been to a man who knew nothing that he could confess and whose repentance, if he had pretended any, would have been the utmost hypocrisy?

We cannot escape the conviction that Satan here played one of his trump cards in his vain effort to shake the integrity of Job. Zophar and the other friends of Job, of course, were unaware that they, in these confrontations, were primary agents of the devil himself.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

But the eyes of the wicked shall fail - That is, they shall be wearied out by anxiously looking for relief from their miseries. “Noyes.” Their expectation shall be vain, and they shall find no relief. Perhaps Zophar here means to apply this to Job, and to say to him that with his present views and character, his hope of relief would fail. His only hope of relief was in a change - in turning to God - since it was a settled maxim that the wicked would look for relief in vain. This assumption that he was a wicked man, must have been among the most trying things that Job had to endure. Indeed nothing could he more provoking than to have others take it for granted as a matter that did not admit of argument, that he was a hypocrite, and that God was dealing with him as an incorrigible sinner.

And they shall not escape - Margin, “Flight shall perish from them.” The margin is a literal translation of the Hebrew. The sense is, escape for the wicked is out of the question. They must be arrested and punished.

And their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost - literally, “the breathing out of the life or soul.” Their hope shall leave them as the breath or life does the body. It is like death. The expression does not mean that their hope would always expire at death, but that it would certainly expire as life leaves the body. The meaning is, that whatever hope a wicked man has of future happiness and salvation, must fail. The time must come when it will cease to comfort and support him. The hope of the pious man lives until it is lost in fruition in heaven. It attends him in health; supports him in sickness; is with him at home; accompanies him abroad; cheers him in solitude; is his companion in society; is with him as he goes down into the shades of adversity, and it brightens as he travels along the valley of the shadow of death. It stands as a bright star over his grave - and is lost only in the glories of heaven, as the morning star is lost in the superior brightness of the rising sun. Not so the hypocrite and the sinner. His hope dies - and he leaves the world in despair. Sooner or later the last ray of his delusive hopes shall take its departure from the soul, and leave it to darkness. No matter how bright it may have been; no matter how long he has cherished it; no matter on what it is founded - whether on his morals, his prayers, his accomplishments, his learning; if it be not based on true conversion, and the promised mercy of God through a Redeemer, it must; soon cease to shine, and will leave the soul to the gloom of black despair.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn to the eleventh chapter of the book of Job.

And in chapter 11 we hear from Job's third friend, old Zophar, and he gets his two cents worth in. Now for you that weren't here last Sunday night, we remember that the sons of God were presenting themselves to God and Satan came with them. And God did a little bragging on his servant, Job. And Satan said, "Yes, but You've so prospered him. Job, or anybody for that matter, would serve You if they were blessed as much as Job is. And You've put a hedge around the fellow; I can't get to him. Take away the hedge. Let me take away his possessions; he'll curse You to Your face." And so the Lord said, "All right. You can take away his possessions, but you leave him alone." And so Satan, operating within the limitations that God placed upon him. And Satan stripped Job of all of his possessions, his children even. And when Job received the word finally that his children were wiped out, he fell on his face and he said, "Naked I came into the world, naked I am going out. The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." And in all of these things Job did not curse God, nor did he charge God foolishly.

So it came to pass in another day that the sons of God were presenting themselves to God, and Satan also came with them. And God said the Satan, "Where have you been?" And he said, "Oh, going around the earth." The Lord said, "Have you considered my servant Job? Good man. He's upright. He's perfect. He loves good; he hates evil. And in spite of all of what you've done, you were wrong about him. He didn't curse Me." And so Satan offered, really, a second suggestion concerned Job in which he expressed really what the psychologists tell us are the basic instincts of man, and that is self-preservation. Skin for skin. Yea, all that a man has will he give for his skin. Will he give for his life. "You see, You haven't let me touch him. Let me hit him. Let me get at him and he'll curse You to Your face." So God said, "All right, do what you would want, but don't take his life. Spare his life."

So Job was afflicted with these horrible boils from the head to the toe. Running, putrid sores. Painful. He lay out in the dust, in the ashes. As the sores would dry they would just form clods on his body. He'd take a piece of broken clay and just scrape himself. Absolutely miserable condition. His wife looked at him one day and said, "Honey, why don't you get it over with? Why don't you just curse God and die?" Job said, "We've received good from God, should we not also receive evil?"

There were three men from the east, reputed wise men who knew Job because Job was the greatest man in all of the east because of the abundance of his possessions prior to his being stripped. And they came to commiserate with him in his misery. And they sat there in silence for seven days as they saw the misery of their friend. And after seven days, Job opened up his mouth and cursed the day that he was born. Cursed the fact that he was alive. Cried out for death. And his friends began to more or less rebuke him. They began to suggest and intimate that no one could suffer this much unless he was some kind of a horrible sinner. That though he appeared outwardly to be a good man, yet he must be hiding some dreadful sin, or seeking to hide it, but God wouldn't let him hide it, and this surely is punishment from God for the evil that he has done.

Now, we know better than that because we had the first two chapters where we got the insight to what was happening. So we know how wrong is the evaluation of man concerning the situation. It's interesting how that we so often think that we know all the answers. And this is sort of Zophar's position. You know, he really knows just what it's all about. He knows all about God, and he's a religious dogmatist. And he now makes his speech as we get here to chapter 11, and rebukes Job, and again the innuendoes of evil and so forth in Job. So these are the discourses that the friends will speak and then Job will answer them. And then the next friend will speak up and try to put Job down, and Job will answer him. And the conversation is going back and forth between Job and his friends. A friend will speak, then Job responds, and this is the way the book of Job moves.

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Should not the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified? ( Job 11:1-2 )

Job, do you think you can just justify yourself with your mouth? A man who says all of the things you're saying, should you just let it go?

Should your lies make men hold their peace? ( Job 11:3 )

Now you see, he's accusing him of being a liar.

and when you mock, shall no man make thee ashamed? For you have said, My doctrine is pure, I am clean in thine eyes. But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee ( Job 11:3-5 );

Well, the first chapter God did speak. God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? An upright man. He loves good. He hates evil." You see, God had spoken and given His evaluation of Job. Now this friend Zophar said, "Oh, if God would only speak! You know, tell us what He knows about you."

He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know ye therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserves ( Job 11:6 ).

"Job, you listen, if God would really lay it on for all you're got coming, it'd be worse than what you've got now." Isn't that a great way to comfort a friend who's really hurting? No wonder Job cried out, "Miserable comforters are all of you." What a way to comfort a man. "Hey, man, you've got it easy. If God would really lay it on you like you've got coming to you, you'd be in much worse shape that this."

And so, an interesting question though. He said, "Can you by searching find out God? Can you find out the Almighty unto perfection?" And the answer is really no. Man, through an intellectual quest, cannot find out God. You will never understand God completely. Now one of our problems is that we are always seeking to understand God. We are always asking God, "Why, Lord, did You allow this? Why, God, has this happened to me? Why, Lord, am I in this condition?" We're trying to understand God. But I have found that why's can be a cesspool. You can drown in it. "Why did God?" The answer is, we don't know the why's of God. God does many things that I do not understand. I don't understand why a child is born blind. I don't understand why someone is crippled for life. I don't understand why children starve to death. There are a lot of things that I don't understand. I don't understand why we have to suffer. I don't understand why we experience sorrow. I don't understand why my brother and father were killed in a plane crash. A lot of things I don't understand.

That is why it is important that you have certain foundational truths upon which you stand. You see, there are certain things that I know. They are foundational truths, they are underneath, I rest upon these, I stand upon these. I know this: that God loves me. In spite of what happens, I know God loves me. In spite of what I might experience, I know God loves me. What tragedy might befall me in my path of life, I know that God loves me. And it's important that you know this. It's important that you have this as an undergirding, foundational truth. Because when you don't understand what's happening, you've gotta fall back on what you do understand, and I do understand God loves me. I do understand that God is far wiser than I am and He can see much more than I can see. I do know that my vision is very limited. I know that the spectrum that I can see is very small. I know that God has a much broader vision than I have. He can see the end from the beginning. Not only is His vision much broader than mine, but His wisdom is much expanded from mine. And though I do not understand, thank God I no longer have to understand all of the things that have happened to me. As long as I understand that God loves me and my life is in His hand and that He is working in me according to love and His wisdom, doing what is best for me as He knows what is best. I, by faith, rest there. Lord, You know what's best for me. Lord, You love me. Lord, You're in control of my life. So, whatever. I don't understand why God allowed His own Son to suffer on the cross in order to redeem such as me. There are a lot of things about God that I don't understand. But it isn't necessary or important that I do understand them. It is only necessary that I commit my life completely to God, come what may.

Now if you only commit yourself as far as you understand, if you're only, "Because I am blessed, I'm prospered and all, and therefore I love God and serve God because, you know, I'm prospered so much by God," then what are you going to do in the day of adversity? Should you be stripped of that which you have? What can you do then? But if you've learned to trust in God completely and commit to God completely your life, then you can handle the things that come along your path. So who by searching can find out God? You can't. This is one of the problems man has run up against. He sought to intellectually search for God and understand God, but God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. No matter how much you may search for God intellectually, there always comes that point where you've got to leave the area of reason and take the step of faith to touch Him. Now my intellect can tell me an awful lot about God. My intellect surely brings me to the consciousness and the awareness that God exists. I'm not so stupid as to think this whole thing could have come about through spontaneous generation, or just fortunate accidents. All of the life forms, the variables of the life forms, witness to me of the wisdom of the Divine Creator.

I love nature. I love to study nature. I love the quirks of nature. I love to study the little fish down in Panama that shoots water at the bugs that are on the twigs. Quite accurate. Hits them with a blob of water, they fall, and then his swims up and grabs them. Now how long did it take for that little fish to develop the capacity to spit that little bit of water, to develop the accuracy? How did he survive before he learned how to do it? Things like that fascinate me. Surely there is a Creator. Surely there is an original cause. My intellect can carry me a long way, but there comes the place where I have to, ultimately, to really reach God, leave the realm of the intellect and take the step of faith. "All right, God. I believe. I trust. I commit." A step of faith. I'll never understand God completely; God said I won't. He said, "My ways are not your ways. My ways are beyond your finding out" ( Isaiah 55:8 ). So who can understand God perfectly?

It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than hell; what can you know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, it's broader than the sea. If God decides to cut off, or shut up, or gather together, who can hinder God? [Who can stop the purposes of God?] For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it? For vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt. If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands towards him; If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away, let not wickedness dwell in your tents ( Job 11:8-14 ).

So he's now turning to Job and saying, "Look, you know, if you prepare your heart and stretch out your hand to God, make sure you don't have any wickedness in your hands, and let your tabernacles be clean."

For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shall not fear: Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as the waters that pass away: and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; and shine forth, and thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yes, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety. Also thou shalt lie down, and none will make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee [or shall come to thee and do obeisance]. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost ( Job 11:15-20 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

5. Zophar’s first speech ch. 11

Zophar took great offense at what Job had said. He responded viciously with an aggressiveness that outdid both Eliphaz and Bildad. Zophar was a dogmatist.

"He . . . attempted heavy handed shock treatment to get through to Job." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 917.]

"The Naamathite is the least engaging of Job’s three friends. There is not a breath of compassion in his speech. . . . His censorious chiding shows how little he has sensed Job’s hurt. Job’s bewilderment and his outbursts are natural; in them we find his humanity, and our own. Zophar detaches the words from the man, and hears them only as babble and mockery (Job 11:2). This is quite unfair. Zophar’s wisdom is a bloodless retreat into theory. It is very proper, theologically familiar and unobjectionable. But it is flat beer compared with Job’s seismic sincerity." [Note: Andersen, p. 156.]

"What Job needed was a helping hand, not a slap in the face." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 26]

"How sad it is when people who should share ministry end up creating misery." [Note: Ibid. Cf. Romans 12:15.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Zophar’s appeal to Job 11:13-20

Three steps would bring Job back to where he should be, said Zophar: repentance (Job 11:13), prayer (Job 11:13), and reformation (Job 11:14). He also painted the fruits of conversion for Job. These benefits were a clear conscience, faithfulness, and confidence (Job 11:15); forgetfulness of his troubles (Job 11:16); joy (Job 11:17); hope and rest (Job 11:18); and peace, popularity, and leadership (Job 11:19). Like Bildad, Zophar ended his first speech with a fire-breathing warning (Job 11:20; cf. Job 8:22).

"If Zophar was rough of manner, his desire and hope for Job may be observed, for his description of the prosperity which will come if he but set his heart right is longer and more beautiful than that of either Eliphaz or Bibdad." [Note: Morgan, p. 206.]

Whereas Eliphaz’s authority was personal experience, and Bildad’s was tradition, Zophar’s seems to have been intuition (cf. Job 20:1-5). It appears that Zophar held to what he believed about divine retribution simply because it seemed right to him. He offered no other reason for adopting this view than that it was self-evident, to him at least. His speech was more emotional than any given so far.

"The child who defined ’sympathy’ as ’your pain in my heart’ knew more about giving comfort than did these three." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 19.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

But the eyes of the wicked shall fail,.... Either through grief and envy at Job's prosperity, and with looking for his fall into troubles again; or rather through expectation of good things for themselves, and for deliverance out of trouble, but all in vain; see Lamentations 4:17;

and they shall not escape; afflictions and calamities in this life, nor the righteous judgment, nor wrath to come: or, "refuge shall perish from them" a; there will be none to betake themselves unto for safety; in vain will they seek it from men; refuge will fail them, and no man care for them; and in vain will they fly to rocks and mountains to fall upon them:

and their hope [shall be as] the giving up of the ghost; it is with them as when a man is just expiring, and it is all over with him, and there is no hope of his reviving; so the hope of wicked men is a dying hope, a lost hope; it is not hope, but despair; their hope is gone, and they are lost and undone; and if they retain their hope in life, when they come to die they have none; though the righteous has hope in his death, their hope dies with them, if not before them: or, "their hope is the giving up of the ghost" b; all they have to hope and wish for is death, to relieve them from their present troubles and agonies they are in; and sometimes are left amidst their guilt, despair, and horror, to destroy themselves: now Zophar by all this would suggest, that should not Job take his advice, he would appear to be such a wicked man, whose eyes would fail for his own help, and would not escape the judgments of God here and hereafter, and would die without hope, in black despair; or at least without any hope that would be of any avail.

a ומנוס אבד מנהם "et refugium peribit ab eis", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius; "perfugium", Junius Tremellius "effugium", Mercerus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens. b "Spes vel expectatio eorum est, vel erit efflatio animae", Mercerus, Cocceius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      13 If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;   14 If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.   15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:   16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:   17 And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.   18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.   19 Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.   20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.

      Zophar, as the other two, here encourages Job to hope for better times if he would but come to a better temper.

      I. He gives him good counsel (Job 11:13; Job 11:14), as Eliphaz did (Job 5:8; Job 5:8), and Bildad, Job 8:5; Job 8:5. He would have him repent and return to God. Observe the steps of that return. 1. He must look within, and get his mind changed and the tree made good. He must prepare his heart; there the work of conversion and reformation must begin. The heart that wandered from God must be reduced--that was defiled with sin and put into disorder must be cleansed and put in order again--that was wavering and unfixed must be settled and established; so the word here signifies. The heart is then prepared to seek God when it is determined and fully resolved to make a business of it and to go through with it. 2. He must look up, and stretch out his hands towards God, that is, must stir up himself to take hold on God, must pray to him with earnestness and importunity, striving in prayer, and with expectation to receive mercy and grace from him. To give the hand to the Lord signifies to yield ourselves to him and to covenant with him, 2 Chronicles 30:8. This Job must do, and, for the doing of it, must prepare his heart. Job had prayed, but Zophar would have him to pray in a better manner, not as an appellant, but as a petitioner and humble suppliant. 3. He must amend what was amiss in his own conversation, else his prayers would be ineffectual (Job 11:14; Job 11:14): "If iniquity be in thy hand (that is, if there be any sin which thou dost yet live in the practice of) put it far away, forsake it with detestation and a holy indignation, stedfastly resolving not to return to it, nor ever to have any thing more to do with it. Ezekiel 18:31; Hosea 14:9; Isaiah 30:22. If any of the gains of iniquity, any goods gotten by fraud or oppression, be in thy hand, make restitution thereof" (as Zaccheus, Luke 19:8), "and shake thy hands from holding them," Isaiah 33:15. The guilt of sin is not removed if the gain of sin be not restored. 4. He must do his utmost to reform his family too: "Let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles; let not thy house harbour or shelter any wicked persons, any wicked practices, or any wealth gotten by wickedness." He suspected that Job's great household had been ill-governed, and that, where there were many, there were many wicked, and the ruin of his family was the punishment of the wickedness of it; and therefore, if he expected God should return to him, he must reform what was amiss there, and, though wickedness might come into his tabernacles, he must not suffer it to dwell there, Psalms 101:3-8, c.

      II. He assures him of comfort if he took this counsel, Job 11:15-20; Job 11:15-20, c. If he would repent and reform, he should, without doubt, be easy and happy, and all would be well. Perhaps Zophar might insinuate that, unless God did speedily make such a change as this in his condition, he and his friends would be confirmed in their opinion of him as a hypocrite and a dissembler with God. A great truth, however, is conveyed, That, the work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever,Isaiah 32:17. Those that sincerely turn to God may expect,

      1. A holy confidence towards God: "Then shalt thou lift up thy face towards heaven without spot thou mayest come boldly to the throne of grace, and not with that terror and amazement expressed," Job 9:34; Job 9:34. If our hearts condemn us not for hypocrisy and impenitency, then have we confidence in our approaches to God and expectations from him, 1 John 3:21. If we are looked upon in the face of the anointed, our faces, that were dejected, may be lifted up--that were polluted, being washed with the blood of Christ, may be lifted up without spot. We may draw near in full assurance of faith when we are sprinkled from an evil conscience,Hebrews 10:22. Some understand this of the clearing up of his credit before men, Psalms 37:6. If we make our peace with God, we may with cheerfulness look our friends in the face.

      2. A holy composedness in themselves: Thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear, not be afraid of evil tidings, thy heart being fixed, Psalms 112:7. Job was now full of confusion (Job 10:15; Job 10:15), while he looked upon God as his enemy and quarrelled with him; but Zophar assures him that, if he would submit and humble himself, his mind would be composed, and he would be freed from those frightful apprehensions he had of God, which put him into such an agitation. The less we are frightened the more we are fixed, and consequently the more fit we are for our services and for our sufferings.

      3. A comfortable reflection upon their past troubles (Job 11:16; Job 11:16): "Thou shalt forget thy misery, as the mother forgets her travailing pains, for joy that the child is born; thou shalt be perfectly freed from the impressions it makes upon thee, and thou shalt remember it as waters that pass away, or are poured out of a vessel, which leave no taste or tincture behind them, as other liquors do. The wounds of thy present affliction shall be perfectly healed, not only without a remaining scar, but without a remaining pain." Job had endeavoured to forget his complaint (Job 9:27; Job 9:27), but found he could not; his soul had still in remembrance the wormwood and the gall: but here Zophar puts him in a way to forget it; let him by faith and prayer bring his griefs and cares to God, an leave them with him, and then he shall forget them. Where sin sits heavily affliction sits lightly. If we duly remember our sins, we shall, in comparison with them, forget our misery, much more if we obtain the comfort of a sealed pardon and a settled peace. He whose iniquity is forgiven shall not say, I am sick, but shall forget his sickness, Isaiah 33:24.

      4. A comfortable prospect of their future peace. This Zophar here thinks to please Job with, in answer to the many despairing expressions he had used, as if it were to no purpose for him to hope ever to see good days again in this world: "Yea, but thou mayest" (says Zophar) "and good nights too." A blessed change he here puts him in hopes of.

      (1.) That though now his light was eclipsed it should shine out again, and more brightly than ever (Job 11:17; Job 11:17),-- that even his setting sun should out-shine his noon-day sun, and his evening be fair and clear as the morning, in respect both of honour and pleasure.--that his light should shine out of obscurity (Isaiah 58:10), and the thick and dark cloud, from behind which his sun should break forth, would serve as a foil to its lustre,--that it should shine even in old age, and those evil days should be good days to him. Note, Those that truly turn to God then begin to shine forth; their path is as the shining light which increases, the period of their day will be the perfection of it, and their evening to this world will be their morning to a better.

      (2.) That, though now he was in a continual fear and terror, he should live in a holy rest and security, and find himself continually safe and easy (Job 11:18; Job 11:18): Thou shalt be secure, because there is hope. Note, Those who have a good hope, through grace, in God, and of heaven, are certainly safe, and have reason to be secure, how difficult soever the times are through which they pass in this world. He that walks uprightly may thus walk surely, because, though there are trouble and danger, yet there is hope that all will be well at last. Hope is an anchor of the soul,Hebrews 6:19. "Thou shalt dig about thee," that is, "Thou shalt be as safe as an army in its entrenchments." Those that submit to God's government shall be taken under his protection, and then they are safe both day and night. [1.] By day, when they employ themselves abroad: "Thou shalt dig in safety, thou and thy servants for thee, and not be again set upon by the plunderers, who fell upon thy servants at plough," Job 1:14; Job 1:15. It is no part of the promised prosperity that he should live in idleness, but that he should have a calling and follow it, and, when he was about the business of it, should be under the divine protection. Thou shalt dig and be safe, not rob and be safe, revel and be safe. The way of duty is the way of safety. [2.] By night, when they repose themselves at home: Thou shalt take thy rest (and the sleep of the labouring man is sweet) in safety, notwithstanding the dangers of the darkness. The pillar of cloud by day shall be a pillar of fire by night: "Thou shalt lie down (Job 11:19; Job 11:19), not forced to wander where there is no place to lay thy head on, nor forced to watch and sit up in expectation of assaults; but thou shalt go to bed at bedtime, and not only shall non hurt thee, but none shall make thee afraid nor so much as give thee an alarm." Note, It is a great mercy to have quiet nights and undisturbed sleeps; those say so that are within the hearing of the noise of war. And the way to be quiet is to seek unto God and keep ourselves in his love. Nothing needs make those afraid who return to God as their rest and take him for their habitation.

      (3.) That, though now he was slighted, yet he should be courted: "Many shall make suit to thee, and think it their interest to secure thy friendship." Suit is made to those that are eminently wise or reputed to be so, that are very rich or in power. Zophar knew Job so well that he foresaw that, how low soever this present ebb was, if once the tide turned, it would flow as high as ever; and he would be again the darling of his country. Those that rightly make suit to God will probably see the day when others will make suit to them, as the foolish virgins to the wise, Give us of your oil.

      III. Zophar concludes with a brief account of the doom of wicked people (Job 11:20; Job 11:20): But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. It should seem, he suspected that Job would not take his counsel, and here tells him what would then come of it, setting death as well as life before him. See what will become of those who persist in their wickedness, and will not be reformed. 1. They shall not reach the good they flatter themselves with the hopes of in this world and in the other. Disappointments will be their doom, their shame, their endless torment. Their eyes shall fail with expecting that which will never come. When a wicked man dies his expectation perishes,Proverbs 11:7. Their hope shall be as a puff of breath (margin), vanished and gone past recall. Or their hope will perish and expire as a man does when he gives up the ghost; it will fail them when they have most need of it and when they expected the accomplishment of it; it will die away, and leave them in utter confusion. 2. They shall not avoid the evil which sometimes they frighten themselves with the apprehensions of. They shall not escape the execution of the sentence passed upon them, can neither out-brave it nor outrun it. Those that will not fly to God will find it in vain to think of flying from him.