Job 11:20 Commentary and Bible Study

But if you don’t admit your hypocrisy then you face total ruin. The eyes of the wicked will fail to see the good they hope to see. Like the righteous they too look for happiness, security; they too hope for a reward for their labour, but this will come to nothing. It is a delusion which quietens them only long enough to stop them seeking real peace with God. All they imagine is a dream which God will ensure fails to be realised. This is their just reward for thinking that they could hide the truth from God, and practice sin in secret. They are storing up judgment for themselves, and their punishment waits for them. They think it is an easy matter to escape the justice of the Lord, and so they have lived a lie in expectation of avoiding any consequences, but his sentence against them was uttered long ago and nothing can prevent it. Their hope will be like the departure of the spirit from the body at death; it is vain to think of bringing it back again. It will leave a dead corpse which cannot be restored to life, and must be put out of sight in the ground.With such misapplied words, Zophar ends his useless advice to Job. He is like a doctor treating the wrong disease and insisting that the unpleasant remedy be applied even though it cannot help the patient.