World English Bible
- Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,
- “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?
- Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?
- For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’
- But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
- that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
- “Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
- They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
- Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
- If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
- For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.
- An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.
- “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
- If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.
- Surely then you will lift up your face without spot. Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear,
- for you will forget your misery. You will remember it like waters that have passed away.
- Life will be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning.
- You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety.
- Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will court your favor.
- But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”
Yesterday we pondered the Prosecutor who became our Advocate. Today Zophar plays the prosecutor’s part. He speaks some of the most exalted lines in the book—and wields them like a knife.
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” he asks. “They are higher than the heavens… deeper than the depths… longer than the earth… broader than the sea” (Job 11:7–9, New International Version). This is a grand fourfold merism—height, depth, length, breadth—measuring the unmeasurable. Strikingly, Paul later uses the same four dimensions for “the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18, New International Version). Zophar uses mystery to silence a sufferer; Paul uses mystery to enlarge hope.
Zophar claims access to “the secrets of wisdom” that are “double” (Hebrew: sodot chokmah… kefel tushiyyah, Job 11:6). He implies there is a hidden ledger: Job must be getting “less than [his] iniquity deserves.” The word tushiyyah in Proverbs often means sound, saving wisdom—resourcefulness that rescues. Zophar is half right about the “double”: Job will indeed end with “double” (Job 42:10), and God’s wisdom is more than we see. But the secret is not a hidden sin behind every sorrow; it is a hidden Savior: “We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery… Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:7–8, New International Version). Zophar’s “double wisdom” becomes, in the gospel, cross and resurrection.
He ridicules, “A hollow man will get understanding when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man” (Job 11:12, cf. Hebrew navuv… pere). In the ancient Near East the wild donkey (onager) was an emblem of fierce desert freedom. Zophar weaponizes the image—Job is an unbroken beast. But later, God will delight in that very creature: “Who let the wild donkey go free?” (Job 39:5, New International Version). What Zophar despises, God enjoys. Be careful whom you call untamed; heaven may call them free.
There is more. Zophar urges true postures—“set your heart,” “spread out your hands” (11:13–14)—and promises restoration: lifted face, bright noon, safe sleep, many seeking favor (11:15–19). Much of this will indeed happen to Job. But Zophar’s road is wrong: he makes repentance a bargain to repair reputation. The book will end, instead, with God’s self-revelation, Job’s humbled wonder, and Job interceding for the very friends who misread him. Sometimes critics predict the destination but misname the path.
Gregory the Great noted that Job’s friends often speak truth in the wrong way and at the wrong time. Calvin warned that sound doctrine, misapplied, does harm. Zophar’s deepest error is inconsistency: he proclaims God unsearchable, then claims to have searched out Job’s case with precision. Mystery should soften our certainties, not sharpen our accusations.
For the church: never use God’s transcendence to quiet a sufferer. Let it stretch your compassion. The One whose wisdom is higher than heaven did not say, “You deserve worse.” He “did not spare his own Son” (Romans 8:32, New International Version). Zophar told Job to stretch out his hands; Christ stretched out his hands for Job—and for us.
Suggested cross-references: - Ephesians 3:14–19; Romans 11:33 - 1 Corinthians 2:6–10 - Job 39:5–8; Isaiah 40:12–14 - Luke 13:1–5; John 9:1–3 - 2 Corinthians 1:8–10
Hymn suggestion: “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.”
Prayer: Most High and Most Near, rescue us from Zophar’s zeal. Let your unsearchable wisdom make us gentle, and your vastness make us kind. Teach us to see the wild ones as you see them, and to measure everything by the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love. Stretch our hands in prayer, our hearts in mercy, and our words in season. Amen.