False Ascents and the True Calling

Zophar the Naamathite said in reply: In truth, my thoughts urge me to answer(It is because of my feelings When I hear reproof that insults me);A spirit out of my understanding makes me reply: Do you not know this, that from time immemorial,Since humankind was set on earth, The joy of the wicked has been brief,The happiness of the impious man, fleeting? Though he grows as high as the sky,His head reaching the clouds, He perishes forever, like his dung;Those who saw him will say, “Where is he?” He flies away like a dream and cannot be found;He is banished like a night vision. Eyes that glimpsed him do so no more;They cannot see him in his place any longer. His children ingratiate themselves with the poor;His own hands must give back his wealth. His bones, still full of vigor,Lie down in the dust with him. Though evil is sweet to his taste,And he conceals it under his tongue; Though he saves it, does not let it go,Holds it inside his mouth, His food in his bowels turnsInto asps’ venom within him. The riches he swallows he vomits;God empties it out of his stomach. He sucks the poison of asps;The tongue of the viper kills him. Let him not enjoy the streams,The rivers of honey, the brooks of cream. He will give back the goods unswallowed;The value of the riches, undigested. Because he crushed and tortured the poor,He will not build up the house he took by force. He will not see his children tranquil;He will not preserve one of his dear ones. and ḥamud, cf. Hos. 9.16. With no survivor to enjoy it,His fortune will not prosper. When he has all he wants, trouble will come;Misfortunes of all kinds will batter him. Let that fill his belly;Let [God] loose burning anger at him,And God’s weapons rain down upon him. Fleeing from iron arrows,He is shot through from a bow of bronze. Brandished and run through his body,The blade, through his gall,Strikes terror into him. Utter darkness waits for his treasured ones;A fire, fanned by no one, will consume him;Who survives in his tent will be crushed. Heaven will expose his iniquity;Earth will rise up against him. His household will be cast forth by a flood,Spilled out on the day of God’s wrath. This is the wicked man’s portion from God,The lot God has ordained for him.

Job 20:1–20 is Zophar's second speech. He argues that the joy of the wicked is always brief, regardless of how high they seem to climb. His vivid imagery—dung, dreams, asps' venom—warns that a life built on self-promotion and oppression collapses from within. While his tone is harsh toward Job, the passage exposes a contrast that frames a true theology of calling.