Question: "What was Zophar the Naamathite’s message to Job?" Zophar the Naamathite is first mentioned in Job 2:11 as one of three friends who arrive to comfort Job after they heard of the bad things that had happened to him. Verses 12–13 show their response to his distress: “When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” After Eliphaz and Bildad, Zophar spoke third in offering advice to Job. Zophar’s speech begins in chapter 11. Giving the strongest of the three initial speeches, Zophar declares that Job deserved even worse than what he got. In verse 6, he states, “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves” (ESV). Job responds in chapter 12 that it was the Lord who brought this suffering upon him, and in chapter 13 maintains his innocence: “I know I will be vindicated” (Job 13:18).
Zophar’s second speech (in Job 20) focuses on the theme that the one who commits wickedness will suffer for it. In his words, “A flood will carry off his house, / rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath. / Such is the fate God allots the wicked, / the heritage appointed for them by God” (Job 20:28–29). In Job 21, Job answers that God, for some reason, does allow the wicked to prosper: “They spend their years in prosperity / and go down to the grave in peace” (Job 21:13). Zophar’s assessment of Job’s condition was not accurate, because Job had done nothing wrong and was suffering, while others who did evil lived “safe and free from fear” (verse 9). Job’s other two friends each give three speeches, but Zophar gives only two. Following Job’s extended defense after Bildad’s third speech, a fourth man, Elihu, speaks up (Job 32). Elihu’s two concerns are expressed in Job 32:2–3: “He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.
He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong” (ESV). In the end, Zophar is rebuked by God along with his two friends: “My anger burns against you . . . for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7). Zophar last appears in verse 9, where we find him offering the sacrifices God had required: “So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them.” Despite his bad advice and his inaccurate portrayal of God, Zophar repented when rebuked by God and was forgiven. Zophar and his friends serve as an example of how people often view suffering from a human perspective that overlooks God’s divine plan. While it is true that those who do wrong often suffer, God also allows suffering for other reasons often unknown to us at the time. Instead of assuming all suffering is due to a person’s wrongdoing, we should examine our own lives before the Lord and see how we can live for Him during times of struggle (James 5:11), knowing that suffering can serve as part of His sovereign plan.
Talk about a peanut gallery. These guys have plenty to say, and Job isn't their biggest fan. He calls them "miserable comforters" (16:3), and he spends almost the whole book arguing with them. So if they're not Job's friends, what are they doing there? Well, they definitely give us something to think about. All their generalizations about what happens to sinners seem a little too cut and dry. It makes us think, there must be more to it than that…right? According to Maimonides, a super-scholarly Medieval, guy, each of Job's friends represents a different position on divine providence: "Eliphaz represents the biblical or rabbinic tradition—Job is being punished for his sins; Bildad expresses the view of the Mutazillites—Job is being tested to receive a greater reward; and Zophar presents the view of the Asharites—Job suffers because of God's arbitrary will" (source). Let's take a look.Eliphaz poses a loaded question to Job: "Who that was innocent ever perished?" At the core of that question is the statement that all humans mess up.
None of us are totally innocent. Eliphaz notes that God disciplines even angels. So yeah, humans have no chance of being sinless. (As you can imagine, this is a popular aspect of the book of Job in Christian theology. Check out our section on faith perspectives for more on that.) With that in mind, Eliphaz interprets Job's musings as whining. When he sees how massive Job's punishment is, he compares that to his handy dandy chart of sin-to-punishment ratios, and concludes that Job must have done something awful (22:4-5). Here's the thing, though. The same God is both the punisher and the healer in life. That complicates things quite a bit. Eliphaz and Job would agree that God gives and God takes away, but Eliphaz believes that this system corresponds to who does evil and who does good. Job, on the other hand, recognizes that the system is more randomized (and thus more scary, hence 6:20), and this leads him to the idea of making his case to God directly.Bildad feels the same way as Eliphaz, but he has another idea on top of it.
What if it was Job's kids or ancestors who had sinned?:Does God pervert justice?/ Or does the Almighty pervert the right?/ If your children sinned against him,/ he delivered them into the power of their transgression. (8:3-4) Remember, back in the day you could be punished for what your relatives did. The sins of your children could mess with you, too. That means it would be possible for God to inflict a punishment on Job for something his kids did.Is Bildad trying to give Job an out? But he's still pretty harsh. Like Eliphaz, he's putting it on Job to admit fault, suck it up, and start over.Surprise, surprise, Zophar follows the same line as his two friends: God is just, and Job must have done something to offend him. If God's power is absolute, and God's law is that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked are punished, then Job's predicament is his own fault. Zophar's street cred mostly comes from his gruesome details about how the wicked are, um, hurt by asps: "They will suck the poison of asps;