Paraphrase on the Book of Job, Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
1. ZOphar the Naamathite, longing1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said: till his time came to reply upon Job, being full of aggravated displeasure, thus at last also venteth himselfe upon him:
2. Saith he, I am even in travell till2. Therefore doe my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. I answer thee, I must needs breake in upon thee, however thou maist take it, and that for this reason:
3. Because thou hast reproachfully3. I have heard the checke of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth mee to answer. taunted that truth, which I and my companions (thy friends) have suggested to thee for thy good: In so much as being well assured of that I have said, to be no other than a certaine and knowne truth, to wit, that God will punish the wicked, and that it shall goe ill with them, and not with the righteous; thy disdainfull contradicting it hath so whetted my spirit, that I can no longer containe my selfe, but must needs out of a right under-standing and certaine knowledge of it, urge this truth yet more home upon thee.
4. How can it be, that thou shouldest4. Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth? be ignorant of this, or how darest thou deny it, which God hath made apparant in all ages since the beginning of the world, and which hath beene ever received and taught for an infallible truth.
5. Even this, that God suffers not a5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? wicked man long to enjoy his earthly happinesse and worldly triumph, but makes it of short continuance: and that the joy which an hypocrite taketh in his prosperity shall not long last, but shall speedily end in endlesse sorrow.
6. Though hee over-top all men,6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds. and be never so high in the repute of the world.
7. Yet hee shall have such a fall, as7. Yet he shall perish for ever, like his owne dung: they which have seen him shal say: Where is hee? he shall never rise againe, yea, the time shall come, that God will make him as loathsome and detestable to himselfe and others, as his owne excrements were wont to be; yea, even those very men that have seene and admired his condition shall ere long, as much wonder at his downefall.
8. A man you know is no sooner awaken,8. Hee shall flie away as a dreame, and shall not be found: yea, hee shall be chased away as a vision of the night. but his delightfull dreame is forgotten; just so, on a sudden, when God awakes in judgement, upon him shall all his former honour and happinesse be quite lost and taken from him, not any of it remaining: yea, like as when a man awaketh, all the imaginary visions of his fancy vanish, so shall all his temporall felicity by the sight and feeling of the anger and displeasure of God against him.
9. Those which are able to say,9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. they can remember the time they saw him thus and so, shall never live to see the like againe, neither shall the place where he lived so splendidously ever enjoy him so any more.
10. His children to stop the clamorous10. His children shall seeke to please the poore; and his hands shall restore their goods. mouths of the oppressed poore shal be forced to stoope to observe and intreat them with good words, and fair promises; whom once their father, and they insulted over with proud oppression, and had them for their observers and suppliants; yea, the heavie wrath of God upon him shall make him with his owne hands restore to the poore, what by oppression he had unjustly taken from them, and glad he may.
11. Hee shall be made to feele the11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie downe with him in the dust. weight of his former sinnes, by the tormenting plagues that God shall heape upon him, which shall pursue him to the death.
12. Though his sins have been never12. Though wickednesse be sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue. so pleasing to him in their acting, and though that still his mind stands that way, being loth to forgoe them.
13. Although he be exceeding loth13. Though hee spare it, and forsake it not; but keepe it still within his mouth. to leave them, and hardly brought to repent of them, but with close hypocriticall dissembling would faine excuse them, that so hee may retaine them still.
14. Yet as well as hee loves them,1. 4 Yet his meat in his bowells is turned, it is the gall of Aspes within him. and as sweet as they have beene in acting, in the end they will prove of a quite contrary effect, bringing deadly plagues upon him, and filling, him with inward bitternesse.
15. Hee hath by ravenous oppression15. Hee hath swallowed downe riches, and hee shall vomit them up againe: God shall cast them out of his belly. gotten abundance, but what though? hee shall never be able to keepe them, but shall be compelled to part with them againe, God shall so torment and fill him with anguish and trouble of minde that hee shall be sicke of them, and wish with all his heart to be rid of them to purchase his ease and quiet.
16. He shall be for all his seeming16. He shall sucke the poison of Aspes; the Vipers tong shall slay him. happinesse in his ill gotten goods, but as a man that by mistake hath sucked the most deadly poison in stead of honey; in the just wrath of God he shall be tormented to death, as if hee were stung with Vipers.
17. Though hee hath promised17. He shall not see the rivers, the flouds, the brookes of honey and butter. himselfe large contentment and felicity by his lawlesse and sinfull courses, yet hee shall find himselfe quite mistaken, and his expectation utterly frustrated; neither enjoying lesse nor more of all that happinesse hee hoped for.
18. Hee shall be quite stript of all18. That which hee laboured for, shall he restore, and shall not swallow it downe: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and hee shall not rejoyce therein. that which with carefull thought taking hee hath gained, and shall part with it to others, himselfe shall have no good by it, how happy soever hee promised himselfe to be: yea, to the utmost farthing shall he be disseized of all that ever hee has, for in retaliating justice, God shall begger him, take it from him and distribute it to other men: hee shall take but little joy, and finde but small benefit in that he hath gathered together, for hee shall lose it every jot.
20. Because he hath come naughtily19. Because hee hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poore; because hee hath violently taken away an house which he builded not. by it, oppressing the poore, and to enrich himselfe by bribery and subornation, hath refused to doe him right, and also by injustice and violence, unlawfully possessed himselfe of other mens estates, which he had no manner of right unto.
20. Hee shall be incessantly pursued20. Surely hee shall not feele quietnesse in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. with vexations, and shall enjoy no hearts-ease; hee shall keepe nothing of that which hee hath got; but shall part with all that whereon he had set his heart, and built his felicity.
21. God shall never cease taking21. There shall none of his meat be left, therefore shall no man looke for his goods. from him, and giving it to others, whilst hee hath any thing left, and till folke see that hee hath not wherewith to sustaine himselfe, they shall not give over to rob and spoile, and to take from him what he has.
22. Then, when he takes himselfe22. In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. to be in his prime and hight of happinesse, shall hee be brought to the greatest indigency and want, God shall let loose every wicked unconscionable man to molest and impoverish him, like as aforetime hee himselfe hath done to others.
23. When he hath satisfied his desires23. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall raine it upon him while hee is eating. to the full, and hath gotten every thing that his heart could wish, to make him happy, so soone as ever hee beginneth to joy himselfe in them, God, whom he least lookes for, it shall blast his hopes, and disturb his security, by executing a furious and wrathfull judgement upon him in great abundance, very then, when he bids his heart make merry, and assures himselfe unchangeable happinesse.
24. The Lord shall wrathfully fight24. He shall flie from the iron weapon, and the bow of steele shall strike him through. against him as a man of warre, with sharp and strong weapons, such as hee shall desire and endeavour to avoid and flie from, but shall by no meanes escape, nor be able to withstand or to stand under, but what one failes to do, another shall certainly bring to passe, so that one way or other hee shall be sure to receive his deaths wound by a fierce discharge of Gods wrathfull plagues upon him.
25. God will be sure to shoot home,25. It is drawne and commeth out of the body; yea, the glistering sword commeth out of his gall; terrours are upon him. so that his arrow shall pierce through and through, he shall make it appeare that it was shot in anger, and that it is his powerfull hand that doth it, yea, hee shall make his most formidable plagues to appeare upon him, they shall pierce his very intralls, so that with bitternesse of spirit hee shall be forced to lament himselfe, his inward terrours shall so affright and perplex him.
26. All manner of dismall feares,26. All darknesse shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blowne shall consume him, it shall goe ill with him that is left in his Tabernacle. surmising thoughts, and misgiving despaire shall enter and take possession of his soule, and no comfortable hope shall appeare in him. Hee and all his substance shall by the wrath of God hastily consume to nothing as the stubble by the fire, yea, so incensed is God against him, as that for his oppression and hypocrisie sake, such a curse shall cleave to him, and to all that comes of him, yea, to the very place of his abode, as that whosoever remaines in it shall partake it.
27. God by punishments from heaven,27. The heavens shall reveale his iniquity: and the earth shall rise up against him. shall lay him open sufficiently to all the world to be a grievous sinner, and a notorious hypocrite, whatsoever he saith to the contrary; yea, hee shall make the very creatures to abhorre him for it, and utterly to deny their comfort and service to him, to signifie what he is.
28. All his posterity shall be destroyed,28. The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. and so shall his prosperity too; even all at once with a sudden ebbe, in the day that God visits him with his wrath and righteous judgements.
29. This that I have told thee is the29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God. portion that a wicked hypocriticall oppressour must looke for, and shall certainly receive from God, and none but such; God in his just purpose hath set it a part, and assigned it for him, and will when his sins are ripe, and the time fit, most certainely execute it upon him, as his works have ever declared.