Job 27:7-23

B. NO BELIEVERS ANONYMOUS,

I.E., NO UNIVERSAL SALVATION (Job 27:7-23)

TEXT 27:7-23

7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked,

And let him that riseth up against me be as the unrighteous.

8 For what is the hope of the godless, though he get him gain,

When God taketh away his soul?

9 Will God hear his cry,

When trouble cometh upon him?

10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty,

And call upon God at all times?

11.

I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

12 Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;

Why then are ye become altogether vain?

13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

And the heritage of oppressors,

which they receive from the Almighty:

14 If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword;

And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death,

And his widows shall make no lamentation.

16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,

And prepare raiment as the clay;

17 He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,

And the innocent shall divide the silver.

18 He buildeth his house as the moth,

And as a booth which the keeper maketh.

19 He lieth down rich, but he shall not be gathered to his fathers;

He openeth his eyes, and he is not.

20 Terrors overtake him like waters;

A tempest stealeth him away in the night.

21 The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth;

And it sweepeth him out of his place.

22 For Godshall hurl at him, and not spare:

He would fain flee out of his hand.

23 Men shall clap their hands at him,

And shall hiss him out of his place.

COMMENT 27:7-23

Job 27:7In this present text, Zophar gives no response. Some affirm that Job 27:7-23 are inappropriate on Job's lips, and ascribe the verses to Zophar. The lot of the wicked, i.e., those without God and hope, is inevitable punishment. Though the words are strong, they are not vindictive but rather express the author's abhorrence of evil.

Job 27:8The verb rendered get gain means gain by violence, cut off, break offEzekiel 22:27. Note that Job 27:9 speaks of God's deafness to the prayers of the wicked. The verse is relating how lonely and isolated the wicked are, even in this life. The ultimate fate of the wicked is again death. Only the godly man can pray to God; all ears are deaf to the ungodly (Heb. hanephas a class of men). Why do his friends implore him to pray for forgiveness, if God does not hear the prayers of the hanephungodly?

Job 27:9The verse continues the point from Job 27:8If I am unrighteous, God will not hear my prayer for forgiveness. Job presents them with a theological dilemma of their own making. How devastating.

Job 27:10The same verb rendered delight himself has already appeared in Job 22:26. It is useless to pray to God in times of trouble if we have ignored Him in all other circumstances (at all times).

Job 27:11He here launches on a new theological theme that of God's immoral behavior in governing the universe. The you is again plural. Both Job and his friends claim superior knowledge.

Job 27:12How can you be uninformed concerning the universal phenomenon of God's injustice, if you are so wise? He charges them with intense futility, i.e., lit. become vain with a vain thing.

Job 27:13These words are almost identical with Zophar's in Job 20:29. The wicked man is singular, but oppressors is in the plural. The preposition -im should be translated from and not with (as in the A. V.[278]) Shaddai, the almighty. The portion or judgment is from God.

[278] M. Dahood, UgariticHebrew Philology (Rome, 1965), p. 32.

Job 27:14Numerous children were thought to be a great blessing; here they are for destructionJob 5:4; Job 18:19; and Job 21:8; Job 21:11. The sword is to break (pssshatter, scatter) his offspring.

Job 27:15His survivors, i.e., children, not destroyed by the sword will be left to the fate of death by pestilenceJeremiah 15:2; Jeremiah 18:2. The Hebrew text literally says His survivors will be buried in death by death, a death which befits the ungodly. Not to be buried2 Kings 9:10; Jeremiah 8:2; Jeremiah 14:6; Jeremiah 22:19or mournedPsalms 78:64; Jeremiah 22:10was a disaster. The strange phrase above could perhaps yield better sense by taking de Vaux's suggestion that bamotrather thanbammawetis a cultic word for tomb.[279] Contrast with Job 21:32 where Job declares that the wicked often have a large funeral.

[279] R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1 vol. E. T.), p. 287.

Job 27:16The image here suggests abundanceZechariah 9:3. After the family is destroyed, their possessions follow the same fate. Silver and elaborate garments are greatly valued, see Genesis 24:53; Joshua 7:21; 2 Kings 5:22 ff; and Zechariah 14:14.

Job 27:17The only ones who will prosper are the righteous. What the ungodly accumulate will be divided by the godlyPsalms 39:6; Proverbs 13:22.

Job 27:18The A. V. rendering of asas mothis inappropriate since moths do not build houses. The imagery here comes from the harvest season when a watchman or guard builds temporary shelter from which to watch over unharvested crop. One could hardly derive this since from the A. V. the verbs (banahhe builds, -asahhe makes) are not parallel. The verb he makes refers to the flimsy shelter (sukkah) which the watchman constructs.[280]

[280] See M. Pope, Job, p. 193, for thorough discussion.

Job 27:19The rich lie down, but for the last time. The swiftness of the destruction of the wicked is here vividly expressed. The rendering of the A. V., he shall not be gathered to his fathers, expresses the Hebrew will do so no more. The second line containing the phrase and he is not is an attempt at rendering the Hebrew, which can be either it is not or he is not and expresses the fact that a dying man is conscious of his own demise.

Job 27:20Dahood renders this verse terrors will overtake him like a flood, night will kidnap him like a tempest[281]Job 22:11. As in Job 27:19, calamity calls him from his night chambers. The wicked man is haunted by terrors night and dayIsaiah 28:17; Hosea 5:10; and Amos 5:24.

[281] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1969, p. 342.

Job 27:21The east wind causes restless and sleepless nights; thus it signifies all that is unpleasant. This sirocco wind is scorching and violent, destroying man's peaceJob 15:2. Even the climatic conditions crash in on the ungodly.

Job 27:22The A. V. makes little sense. There is neither subject nor object to hurl (word God is not in the text) in the text, but the implication is that of a deadly missile.

Job 27:23The ambiguities of this verse largely stem from the unexpressed subject of the verbs of Job 27:22-23, which may be God, east wind, or one man. The metaphors here convey derisive mockery and contemptLamentations 2:15. The rendering of the A. V. men shall clap their hands at him, understands the text as an indefinite third person one claps or men clap. When death and destruction come to the wicked, men scornfully clap their hands, while hissing (a gesture of horror) at the very thought of themJeremiah 49:17; Ezekiel 27:36; Zephaniah 2:15.