Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
Job 20:2 belongs to the long colloquies in Job 3-31 between Job and his three friends concerning the cause and object of human suffering. That debate over Job's afflictions is arranged in three rounds of speeches by each speaker. Within that structure the verse stands in Zophar's second speech, whose theme is the portion of the wicked.
The verse faithfully records what was spoken, but its inspiration does not make what was said true. Like the rest of the friends' speeches, it presents their own wisdom and observation, which was generally true in holding that evil is ultimately punished and good is ultimately rewarded. That general principle was misapplied to Job because they had never known a thoroughly good man to be so afflicted, whereas adversity, affliction, and suffering do not prove a man is under God's displeasure. The claims about Job and about God made in the friends' speeches must therefore be tested against Scripture rather than accepted as reliable merely because they are recorded in the Bible.
Job 20:2 belongs to the long colloquies in Job 3-31 between Job and his three friends concerning the cause and object of human suffering. That debate over Job's afflictions is arranged in three rounds of speeches by each speaker. Within that structure the verse stands in Zophar's second speech, whose theme is the portion of the wicked.
The verse faithfully records what was spoken, but its inspiration does not make what was said true. Like the rest of the friends' speeches, it presents their own wisdom and observation, which was generally true in holding that evil is ultimately punished and good is ultimately rewarded. That general principle was misapplied to Job because they had never known a thoroughly good man to be so afflicted, whereas adversity, affliction, and suffering do not prove a man is under God's displeasure. The claims about Job and about God made in the friends' speeches must therefore be tested against Scripture rather than accepted as reliable merely because they are recorded in the Bible.