Job 20:12

My Notes

What Does Job 20:12 Mean?

"Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue." Zophar's second speech describes the TEMPORARY pleasure of sin: wickedness is SWEET — like candy held in the mouth, savored, enjoyed, reluctantly swallowed. The sinner HIDES the sin under the tongue — prolonging the sweetness, keeping it close, not wanting the taste to end. The metaphor is GUSTATORY — sin as something TASTED, enjoyed on the palate, rolled around in the mouth.

The phrase "wickedness be sweet in his mouth" (tamtiq bepiw ra'ah — evil is sweet in his mouth) uses the vocabulary of FOOD pleasure: tamtiq — to be sweet, to taste good, to be pleasant on the palate. The wickedness doesn't just TEMPT. It TASTES GOOD. The pleasure is real. The sweetness is genuine. Sin isn't described as bitter medicine that fools swallow. It's described as candy that sinners SAVOR.

The phrase "hide it under his tongue" (yakhbidenah tachat leshono — he conceals it beneath his tongue) describes PROLONGING the pleasure: hiding something under the tongue is what you do with a sweet you don't want to swallow — you hold it, extend the experience, keep the flavor going. The sinner doesn't rush through sin. He LINGERS. He savors. He extends the sweetness by holding the wickedness close to the taste buds.

Zophar's point (verses 14-16) is that the sweetness TURNS: the sweet sin becomes poison in the stomach. The candy becomes cobra venom. The pleasure reverses. But the acknowledgment that sin IS sweet is theologically HONEST — the Bible doesn't pretend sin is unpleasant. It admits the sweetness while warning about the aftertaste.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What is currently sweet in your mouth — and what aftertaste are you heading toward?
• 2.What does the Bible admitting sin is SWEET teach about honest acknowledgment of temptation?
• 3.How does 'hiding under the tongue' (prolonging the pleasure) describe what you do with sin you don't want to release?
• 4.What sweetness that turned to POISON have you experienced — and did the aftertaste teach you anything?

Devotional

Wickedness is SWEET in the mouth. The Bible doesn't pretend otherwise. Sin TASTES GOOD — that's why people do it. The sweetness is real. The pleasure is genuine. The temptation isn't to something bitter. It's to something that your tongue actually ENJOYS. The honesty of this admission is refreshing — and dangerous.

The 'HIDING it under the tongue' is the prolonging: the sinner doesn't just taste the wickedness and swallow. He HOLDS it — keeps it under the tongue, extends the flavor, prolongs the pleasure. The hiding is the savoring. The concealing is the lingering. You hold under your tongue what you don't want to let go of. The sin is kept CLOSE because the sweetness is too good to release.

Zophar's warning is that the sweetness TURNS: verse 14 — 'his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.' The candy becomes COBRA VENOM. The sweet thing turns toxic in the stomach. The pleasure that the tongue enjoyed, the gut REJECTS. The aftertaste is poison. The sweetness was temporary. The bitterness is permanent.

The HONESTY about sin's sweetness is what makes the warning CREDIBLE: if the Bible said 'sin is always unpleasant,' nobody would believe it. Sin IS sweet. That's the problem. The sweetness is the trap. The pleasure is the hook. The taste is genuine — and the poison that follows the taste is also genuine. The warning works because the admission is honest.

What sin is currently sweet in your mouth — and what does the aftertaste look like if you keep holding it under your tongue?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture