Job 20:3

I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) I have heard the check of my reproach.—Rather, I have heard, or, I hear the reproof of my shame: that is, a reproof that puts me to shame, or is intended to do so.

The spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.—Or, more literally, Out of my understanding my spirit answereth me, or causeth me to answer. He professes to be moved by an impulse within, which he cannot but obey.

Benson Commentary

Job 20:3. I have heard — Or, Shall I hear? Namely, with patience, and without a reply? Who can endure it? The check of my reproach — That is, thy shameful and opprobrious reproofs of us, as if we, and all thy friends, were void of all humanity and natural affection toward thee, and were haters and persecutors of thee; and as if we were guilty of very heinous crimes, and might expect God’s vengeance upon us. And the spirit of my understanding — That is, my soul or mind, causeth me to answer — Constraineth me to speak. Or, the words רוח מבינתי, ruach mibbinathi, may be rendered, my spirit, or mind, because of my understanding, that is, out of, or because of, that certain knowledge which I have of this matter from consideration and experience. I speak not from passion, but from certain knowledge.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:1-9 Zophar's discourse is upon the certain misery of the wicked. The triumph of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite are fleeting. The pleasures and gains of sin bring disease and pain; they end in remorse, anguish, and ruin. Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and the ruin that attends it will be accordingly.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have heard the check of my reproach - I have heard your violent and severe language reproaching us. Probably he refers to what Job had said in the close of his speech Job 19:29, that they had occasion to dread the wrath of God, and that they might anticipate heavy judgments as the result of their opinions. Or it may be, as Schultens supposes, that he refers to what Job said in Job 19:2, and the rebuke that he had administered there. Or possibly, and still more probably, I think, he may refer to what Job had said in reply to the former speech of Zophar Job 12:2, where he tauntingly says that "they were the people, and that wisdom would die with them." The Hebrew literally is, "the correction of my shame" (כלמה מוּסר mûsâr kelı̂mmâh), "the correction of my shame." that is, the castigation or rebuke which tends to cover me with ignominy. The sense is, "you have accused me of that which is ignominious and shameful, and under the impetuous feelings caused by such a charge I cannot refrain from replying."

And the spirit of my understanding - Meaning, perhaps, "the emotion of his mind." The word "mind" or "soul" would better express the idea than the word "understanding;" and the word "spirit" here seems to be used in the sense of violent or agitating emotions - perhaps in allusion to the primary signification of the word (רוּח rûach), "mind."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. 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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have heard from thy mouth. Or, Shall I hear, to wit, with patience, and without a reply? Who can endure it?

The check of my reproach, i.e. thy shameful and opprobrious reproofs of us, as if we and all thy friends were void of all humanity and natural affection towards them, and were haters, and cruel persecutors, and even devourers, of thee, Job 19:19,22; and as if we were guilty of most heinous crimes, and might expect God’s vengeance upon us.

The spirit, i.e. my soul or mind.

Of my understanding, or, because of (for so the Hebrew mem oft signifies)

my understanding i.e. out of, or because of, that certain knowledge which I have of this matter from study and experience; I have not spoken, and I shall not speak, out of ignorance, or prejudice, or passion and rage against Job, as he asperseth us, but only what I evidently know, and yet hope that I can and shall convince thee of.

Causeth me to answer, i.e. forceth me to speak. Or, answereth for me, i.e. either vindicates me against thy calumnies, or suggesteth an answer to me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I have heard the check of my reproach,.... He took it that Job had reproached him and his friends, by representing them as hardhearted men, and persecuting him wrongly in a violent manner; and he had observed the "check" or reproof given for it, by bidding them beware of the sword, and lest the punishment of it should be inflicted on them; and if that should not be the case, yet there was a righteous judgment they could not escape. Now Zophar heard this, but could not hear it with patience; be could not bear that he and his friends should be insulted, as he thought, in this manner; and therefore it was he was in such baste to return an answer; though some (d) think he here pretends to a divine oracle, like that which Eliphaz makes mention of in the beginning of this dispute, Job 4:12, &c. which he had from God, and from which he had heard the "correction of his reproach" (e), or a full confutation of the thing Job had reproached him with; and being thus divinely furnished, he thought it his duty to deliver it:

and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer; or his rational spirit, his natural understanding, furnished him at once with an answer; he had such a clear insight into the controversy on foot, and such a full view of it, that he thought himself capable of speaking very particularly to the matter in hand, and to the conviction and confusion of Job; nay, his conscience, or the spirit of his conscience, as Mr. Broughton renders it, not only readily dictated to him what he should say, but obliged him to it; though some think he meant the Holy Spirit of God, by which he would be thought to be inspired; that he "out of his understanding" (f), enlightened by him, caused him to answer, or would answer for him, or supply him with matter sufficient to qualify him for it; and this he might observe to Job, in order to raise his attention to what he was about to say.

(d) Schmidt. (e) "correctionem ignominiae meae", Pagninus, Montanus; so Schmidt, Michaelis. (f) "ex intelligentia mea", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Drusius, Schmidt, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

I have heard {a} the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

(a) He declares that two things moved him to speak: that is, because Job seemed to touch him, and because he thought he had knowledge sufficient to confute him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - I have heard the check of my reproach; or, the reproof which putteth me to shame (Revised Version). Some suppose an allusion to Job 19:2, 3; but it is better to regard Zophar as enraged by vers. 28, 29 of Job 19. And the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. This claim is not quite consistent with the acknowledgment of hastiness in ver. 2. But it is no unusual thing for an impetuous and hasty man to declare that he speaks from the dictates of pure dispassionate reason. Job 20:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 observes: "בעבור stands without addition, because this is easily understood from the כן in לכן." But although this ellipsis is not inadmissible (comp. לכן equals לכן אשׁר, Job 34:25; כעל, Isaiah 59:18), in spite of it Job 20:2 furnishes no meaning that can be accepted. Most expositors translate: "and hence the storm within me" (thus e.g., Ewald); but the signification perturbatio animi, proposed by Schultens for חוּשׁי, after the Arab. ḥâš, is too remote from the usage of Hebrew. Moreover, this Arab. ḥâš signifies prop. to scare, hunt, of game; not, however: to be agitated, to storm, - a signification which even the corresponding Hebr. חוּשׁ, properare, does not support. Only a few expositors (as Umbreit, who translates: because of my storm within me) take בעבור (which occurs only this once in the book of Job) as praepos., as it must be taken in consideration of the infin. which follows (comp. Exodus 9:16; Exodus 20:20; 1 Samuel 1:6; 2 Samuel 10:3). Further, לכן (only by Umbreit translated by "yet," after the Arab. lâkin, lâkinna, which it never signifies in Hebr., where ל is not equals לא, but equals ל with Kametz before the tone) with that which follows is referred by several expositors to the preceding speech of Job, e.g., Hahn: "under such circumstances, if thou behavest thus;" by most, however, it is referred to Job 20:3, e.g., Ew.: "On this account he feels called upon by his thoughts to answer, and hence his inward impulse leaves him no rest: because he hears from Job a contemptuous wounding reproof of himself." In other words: in consequence of the reproach which Job casts upon him, especially with his threat of judgment, Zophar's mind and feelings fall into a state of excitement, and give him an answer to which he now gives utterance. This prospective sense of לכן may at any rate be retained, though בעבור is taken as a preposition (wherefore ... and indeed on account of my inward commotion); but it is far more natural that the beginning of Zophar's speech should be connected with the last word of Job's. Job 20:2 may really be so understood if we connect חושׁי, not with Arab. ḥâš, חושׁ, to excite, to make haste (after which also Saad. and Aben-Ezra: on account of my inward hastening or urging), but with Arab. ḥs, to feel; in this meaning chsh is usual in all the Semitic dialects, and is even biblical also; for Ecclesiastes 2:25 is to be translated: who hath feeling (pleasure) except from Him (read ממנו)? i.e., even in pleasure man is not free, but has conditions fixed by God.

With לכן (used as in Job 42:3) Zophar draws an inference from Job's conduct, esp. from the turn which his last speech has taken, which, as ישׁיבוּני שׂעיפּי

(Note: Thus it is to be read according to the Masoretic note, ומלא לית (i.e., plene, as nowhere else), which occurs in Codd., as is also attested by Kimchi in his Gramm., Moznajim, p. 8; Aben-Ezra in his Gramm., Zachoth 1, b; and the punctuator Jekuthil, in his Darche ha-Nikkud (chapter on the letters יהוא).)

affirms, urges him involuntarily and irresistibly forward, and indeed, as he adds with Waw explic.: on account of the power of feeling dwelling in him, by which he means both his sense of truth and his moral feeling, in general the capacity of direct perception, not perception that is only attained after long reflection. On שׂעיפי, of thoughts which, as it were, branch out, vid., on Job 4:13, and Psychol. S. 181. השׁיב signifies, as everywhere, to answer, not causative, to compel to answer. חוּשׁי is n. actionis in the sense of רגישׁתּי (Targ.), or הרגישׁי (Ralbag), which also signifies "my feeling (αἴσθησις)," and the combination חושׁי בי is like Job 4:21; Job 6:13. Wherein the inference consists in self-evident, and proceeds from Job 20:4. In Job 20:3 expression is given to the ground of the conclusion intended in לכן: the chastisement of my dishonour, i.e., which tends to my dishonour (comp. Isaiah 53:5, chastisement which conduces to our peace), I must hear (comp. on this modal signification of the future, e.g., Job 17:2); and in Job 20:3 Zophar repeats what he has said in Job 20:2, only somewhat differently applied: the spirit, this inner light (vid., Job 32:8; Psychol. S. 154, f), answers him from the perception which is peculiar to himself, i.e., out of the fulness of this perception it furnishes him with information as to what is to be thought of Job with his insulting attacks, viz., (this is the substance of the השׁיב of the thoughts, and of the ענות of the spirit), that in this conduct of Job only his godlessness is manifest. This is what he warningly brings against him, Job 20:4 : knowest thou indeed (which, according to Job 41:1; 1 Kings 21:19, sarcastically is equivalent to: thou surely knowest, or in astonishment: what dost thou not know?!) this from the beginning, i.e., this law, which has been in operation from time immemorial (or as Ew.: hoccine scis aeternum esse, so that מני־עד is not a virtual adj., but virtual predicate-acc.), since man was placed (שׂים infin., therefore prop., since one has placed man) upon the earth (comp. the model passage, Deuteronomy 4:32), that the exulting of the wicked is מקּרוב, from near, i.e., not extending far, enduring only a short time (Arab. qrı̂b often directly signifies brevis); and the joy of the godless עדי־רגע, only for a moment, and continuing no longer?