Within the structure, chapter 20 is grouped into the Dialogue section with the following outline:[10]
Job's Self-Curse and Self-Lament (3:1–26)
Round One (4:1–14:22)
Round Two (15:1–21:34)
Eliphaz (15:1–35)
Job (16:1–17:16)
Bildad (18:1–21)
Job (19:1–29)
Zophar (20:1–29)
Zohar's Initial Response (20:1–3)
The Premature Death of the Wicked (20:4–11)
Sin Will Destroy (20:12–22)
How God Deals with the Wicked (20:23–29)
Job (21:1–34)
Round Three (22:1–27:23)
Interlude – A Poem on Wisdom (28:1–28)
Job's Summing Up (29:1–31:40)
The Dialogue section is composed in the format of poetry with distinctive syntax and grammar.[5]
Chapter 20 contains Zophar's second (and final) speech, which can be divided into several parts:[11]
Zophar's initial response (verses 1–3)
The brevity of the wicked due to premature death (verses 4–11)
The self-destructive nature of sin (using distinctive food imagery, verses 12–22)
God's active wrath against the wicked (verses 23–29)[12]
"Job Rebuked by His Friends". From: the Butts set (June 1805). The Morgan Library.
Zophar's initial response (20:1–3)
In the opening part of the chapter, Zophar responds to Job's rebuke to the three friends (Job 19:28–29) with increasing impatience and growing "troubled thoughts" he felt as he listens to Job.[12] Zophar claims that a "spirit from/out of his understandings answers me" (verse 3b) which prompts him to reply.[12]
Verse 3
[Zophar said:] "I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me,
And the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer."[13]
"The spirit of my understanding": translated from the Hebrew phrase רוּחַ מִבִּינָתִי, ruakh mibbinati, literally "a spirit/wind/breath/impulse from my understanding".[16]
These words (and also the opening statements of other friends of Job) tends to reveal that Job's friends seem more concerned about their wounded pride than about Job's grievous suffering.[17]
Zophar's explanation that the wicked will not escape God's wrath (20:4–29)
Zophar states his resolutely fixed position of the retribution theology in this final speech (Zophar would not participate in the third round of debate), which he focuses mainly at the 'negative side of the equation': 'God always destroys the wicked'.[18] Like Bildad in the first round and Eliphaz in the second round (Job 15) Zophar appeals to tradition, but in a more hyperbolic way to emphasize his certainty of his stance.[12] Two themes are emphasized:[19]
Zophar's traditional understanding weighs more that wickedness will reap desctructive consequences (verses14, 16, 18–19, 21; 'self desctructive nature of human evil') than the involvement of God, despite the belief that God is still working behind it.[20] At the end, God will also show the active wrath against the wicked, as an 'inheritance' allotted to those people (verse 29).[21]
Verse 29
[Zophar said:] "This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
"Appointed to him": translated from the Hebrew word אִמְרוֹ, ʾimro, which can be rendered as "his appointment" or "his word”; in combination with the word "inheritance" it can be translated as "his appointed heritage".[23]
Estes, Daniel J. (2013). Walton, John H.; Strauss, Mark L. (eds.). Job. Teach the Text Commentary Series. United States: Baker Publishing Group. ISBN9781441242778.