to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
old
עַ֑ד'Ad
H5703
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
man
אָדָ֣ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
placed
שִׂ֖יםsim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal infinitive construct
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the…
Genesis 9:1-3 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Job 8:8-9 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
Job 15:10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
Job 32:7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
Psalms 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 20:1-9
Here, I. Zophar begins very passionately, and seems to be in a great heat at what Job had said. Being resolved to condemn Job for a bad man, he was much displeased that he talked so like a good man, and, as it should seem, broke in upon him, and began abruptly (Job 20:2): Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer. He takes no notice of what Job had said to move their pity, or to evidence his own integrity, but fastens upon the reproof he gave them in the close of his discourse, counts that a reproach, and thinks himself therefore obliged to answer, because Job had bidden them be afraid of the sword, that he might not seem to be frightened by his menaces. The best counsel is too often ill t…
check of my reproach--that is, the castigation intended as a reproach (literally, "shame") to me.
spirit of . . . understanding--my rational spirit; answering to "calm thoughts" (Job 20:2). In spite of thy reproach urging me to "hastiness." I will answer in calm reason.
John Gill on Job 20:4
Knowest thou not this of old,.... Or "from eternity" (g), from the beginning of time, ever since the world was; as if he should say, if you are the knowing man you pretend to be, you must know this I am about to observe; and if you do not know it, you must be an ignorant man, since it is an ancient truth, confirmed by all experience from the creation; not that Job could know it so early, he was not the first man that was born, nor was he made before the hills, but was of yesterday, and comparatively knew nothing; but the sense is, that this about to be delivered was an old established maxim, of which there had been numerous instances,
since man, or "Adam",
was placed upon earth; referring…
1 Then began Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
2 Therefore do my thoughts furnish me with a reply,
And indeed by reason of my feeling within me.
3 The correction of my reproach I must hear,
Nevertheless the spirit of my understanding informeth me.
4 Knowest thou this which is from everlasting,
Since man was placed upon the earth:
5 That the triumphing of the evil-doer is not long,
And the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
All modern expositors take Job 20:2 as an apology for the opposition which follows, and the majority of them consider בּעבוּר as elliptical for בעבור זאת, as Tremell., Piscator, and others have done, partly (but wrongly) by referring to the Rebia mugrasch. Ewald observ…
The Church Fathers
"Did you know this from the beginning? Do you know him from the beginning of the centuries? He believes that Job ignores him, as unholy.
In this passage Zophar speaks impudently and seriously insults Job. By scorning him, as the other two friends had already done, Zophar also defamed him for the following reason. After the beginning, after human beings came into existence, they felt "joy" and happiness in the fall "of the impious" and the "destruction of the iniquitous." Zophar wants to include Job among them as well, according to what he says afterwards. Actually, forgetting that great number of people, Zophar addresses his words to a single person.
Ver. 4, 5. I know this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. 3. Now it is clear to be seen that being puffed up with the spirit of his understanding, he warps the sentences, which he pronounces against the ungodly, to the reproving of blessed Job. For in him whom he first saw following right ways, and afterwards undergoing punishment, he reckons all that he saw to have been but hypocrisy, in that he did not believe it possible for a just servant to be put to distress by a just God. But those same sentences, which, being right, he did not pronounce in a right way, let us go through, weighing them with earnest intentness of mind; and setting at nought what he says untrue against blessed Job, let us consider how true are the things he speaks, if he were speaking them against the ungodly. I know this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short. Going to tell the shortness of the present life, he carried back the eye of the interior to the outset of the commencement, in order to collect from the past how nothing all things are, that while they continue to be, seem to be something. For if we carry the eyes of our imagination from the very commencement of the human race up to the present time in which we now are, we see how short all was that was of a nature to come to an end. Let us imagine a man to have lived from the first day of the world's creation to this present day, yet on this day to end the life, which he seemed to have continued to so great a length, lo, the end is come, the things past are already become nought, in that every thing has passed away. For the future in this world is nought, in that not a moment, or the very shortest particle of time remains to our life. Where then is that long time, which, comprehended between the beginning and the end, is so wasted in substance, just as if it had not ever been even short in duration? 4. Therefore because the wicked have their heart centered in this life, surely they set themselves up therein and seek to win applause. They are lifted up by the flattery of the lips, having no desire to be good, but only to be called so. Which praise they think is of a great length while they receive it, but understand to have been brief when they lose it. Whence it is well said against these…
Dictionary and topics
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Man · Created: Upon the earth — Created: Upon the earth
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
