Neither Eliphaz nor Bildad has accused Job of transgression, but their insistence on the deity’s perfect justice has reinforced Job’s sense that they perceive him to be in the wrong. Zophar believes that since Job seems afflicted, he must be suffering punishment at the hands of a just God. However, he is willing to give Job’s integrity the benefit of the doubt: Zophar makes the original suggestion that Job has been made by God to forget his transgression (verse 6). Only the deity knows Job’s sin, and Zophar wishes the deity would set the record straight by revealing it to Job. Job has wanted the same thing. But since divine secrets are inaccessible to humans, all Job can do, according to Zophar, is appeal to God in penitence and thereby be rehabilitated. In underscoring the unknowability of the divine, Zophar anticipates Elihu (chapters 32–37 with 28).
[11:1] Up spoke Zophar the Na’amathite and he said:
[2–3] Should one long of speech be unanswered?
Should a man keen of lips be found in the right?1
Yet people keep silent before you;
You blather,2 but no one refutes3 you.
[4] You say, “My doctrine is pure;
I have been clean4 in your5 eyes.”
[5–6] But if only Eloah would speak,
And open his lips with you,
And reveal to you unseen secrets of wisdom—
For there are two sides to sage knowledge6—
You should know Eloah is making you forget your sin!
[7–9] Can you fathom the depths of Eloah?
Can you reach the limit of Shaddai?
The heights of heaven—can you get there?7
Deeper than Sheol8—can you know it?9
It10 is longer than the earth in measure,11
And wider than the sea.
[10] If he were to snatch,12 or to deliver,13
Or to corral14—who can restrain him?
[11] He alone knows when people are false;
He sees evil and recognizes deceit.15
[12] But a hollow man will be filled with heart,16
When a wild ass17 is born to a human.18
[13–15] If you set aright your heart,
And raise your palms in prayer,19
If you put evil far from your hand,
That no corruption reside in your tents,
Then will your estate be bare of blemish;20
You will be rock solid, and you will not fear.21
[16] For you will have forgotten your travails,
Remembering them only as water that’s flowed.
[17] (Your) lifespan will rise (brighter) than noon;
Like the gleam of morning will you be.22
[18–19] You will feel safe for there is hope;
You will burrow in and lie down in safety.
You will repose23 with no cause to tremble;
Many will seek your guidance, (as before).24
[20] But the eyes of the wicked will grow dim;25
Their refuge will disappear,
And their hope is—chagrin!26
1. Should a person be allowed to win an argument just because he is adept in speaking?
2. Reading wa-te‘alleg from leshon ‘ilgim “twisted language” (Isaiah 32:4) for wa-til‘ag “you mock.” Or, the use of la‘ag is ironic, as it is used (as a metathesized form of ‘lg) in the sense of “stammer, blather” in Isaiah 28:11. Zophar is punning on Job’s use of la‘ag “mock, laugh,” said by him of the deity in 9:23.
3. For this usage, compare Proverbs 25:8.
4. Echoing bor “lye” in 9:30.
5. God’s.
6. Some wisdom is accessible, but some is esoteric and known only to God (Nahmanides).
7. Literally, “can you do, achieve?”
8. The netherworld, the realm of the dead.
9. “Know” has the nuance of direct contact. This couplet is a variant of an age-old line of Mesopotamian wisdom: “The tallest man cannot reach the sky; the broadest man cannot encompass the earth” (Greenspahn).
10. Divine wisdom (verse 6).
11. The Hebrew syntax is a peculiarity of the Joban poet; compare 15:10: “Greater than your father in days.”
12. Reading yaḥtop for yaḥlop “he passes by,” which is unsuitable in this context. Zophar is responding to Job’s assertion about God in 9:12.
13. The verb can suggest surrendering someone to an enemy (for example Lamentations 2:7) or quarantining someone in a house (for example Leviticus 13:5).
14. Gather a person up—a unique usage.
15. In light of the parallelism to shaw’ and ’awen “nought, falsity” and “evil, iniquity,” respectively, it seems most apt to take the deceptive-looking negative particle lo’ here as a substantive, as in 6:21.
16. That is, a mind, intelligence.
17. There are two consecutive terms for “ass”; one is apparently an explanatory scribal gloss on the other.
18. The verse is notoriously difficult; I follow the sensible and linguistically sound interpretation of Good.
19. Literally, “your palms toward him,” toward God.
20. The received text has: “Then will you raise your face without blemish.” However, in view of Zophar’s reference to Job’s habitation, literally, “tents,” in the preceding line, the intention seems to be something like what both Eliphaz and Bildad had assured Job at the end of their speeches: that he will enjoy a restored life and a rebuilt household (see especially 5:24). Accordingly, I divide the words slightly differently and read a few of the letters slightly differently: tishpeh naweka mi-mum, literally, “your estate will be bare (pristine), without blemish.” For nishpeh describing a bare (unforested) hill, see Isaiah 13:2. For naweh as a feminine noun, see for example 8:6. Zophar would seem to blame the destruction of Job’s estate on his having committed some trespass thereon.
21. A response to Job’s expression of fear in 9:34–35 and elsewhere.
22. The language echoes Job in 10:20–22.
23. The image is of a recumbent animal.
24. Literally, “Many will entreat your face.” Compare Job’s role as described by Eliphaz in 4:3–4 and by Job himself in 29:7–25.
25. An expression of unfulfilled expectations; compare Psalm 69:4.
26. Compare the expression “to cause chagrin” in Job 31:38–39. The poet is partial to the oxymoron; compare for example “shines like pitch-black” in 10:22.