He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
The verse belongs to Zophar's speech, part of the friends' speeches setting forth the wicked person's portion, his fleeting prosperity, and his final doom. It describes the wicked person's disappearance as sudden and complete, that like a dream or a vision of the night he flies away, is chased away, vanishes, and cannot be found. In that vanishing is taught his utter destruction and removal from the world, no longer to be found and chased away from the world. Taken with other texts in comparison it gives a balanced understanding of the destiny of the wicked, showing that they are utterly destroyed and not kept alive in eternal misery.
The friends' statements about God and Job are not automatically reliable, but must be compared with other Scripture to determine whether they are true. While they express a general truth about the fate of the wicked and his fleeting prosperity, they are misapplied when used to conclude that suffering proves God's displeasure. The same image also describes human life in general as brief and swiftly cut off, passing quickly and disappearing like a dream and leaving no trace. Applied to the passing years, the dream that quickly vanishes shows how swiftly life goes by, with years spent in meaningful work and attention to present duties seeming to glide away especially rapidly.
The verse belongs to Zophar's speech, part of the friends' speeches setting forth the wicked person's portion, his fleeting prosperity, and his final doom. It describes the wicked person's disappearance as sudden and complete, that like a dream or a vision of the night he flies away, is chased away, vanishes, and cannot be found. In that vanishing is taught his utter destruction and removal from the world, no longer to be found and chased away from the world. Taken with other texts in comparison it gives a balanced understanding of the destiny of the wicked, showing that they are utterly destroyed and not kept alive in eternal misery.
The friends' statements about God and Job are not automatically reliable, but must be compared with other Scripture to determine whether they are true. While they express a general truth about the fate of the wicked and his fleeting prosperity, they are misapplied when used to conclude that suffering proves God's displeasure. The same image also describes human life in general as brief and swiftly cut off, passing quickly and disappearing like a dream and leaving no trace. Applied to the passing years, the dream that quickly vanishes shows how swiftly life goes by, with years spent in meaningful work and attention to present duties seeming to glide away especially rapidly.