Job 11:20

My Notes

What Does Job 11:20 Mean?

Zophar describes the wicked person's end: their eyes fail. They can't escape. And their hope is described as "the giving up of the ghost" — their hope dies the way a person dies. The final breath of the wicked is their last hope, and both expire together.

The phrase "the giving up of the ghost" (mappach nephesh — literally, the breathing out of life) equates hope with breath. For the wicked, hope is as fragile as a final exhalation. It exists for one moment and then it's gone. The breath leaves and so does the hope. Nothing sustains either.

The three images escalate: eyes fail (vision is lost — they can't see a way forward), escape perishes (options close — there's no exit), hope expires (even the internal resource of hope dies like a body dies). Sight, options, and hope — all three gone. The wicked person at the end has nothing left.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Does the progression (sight fails → escape perishes → hope dies) describe anything you've experienced?
• 2.How is hope-that-expires-with-the-breath different from hope that survives death — and which kind do you have?
• 3.Does Zophar accurately describe the wicked while wrongly applying it to Job — and does that distinction matter for how you use theology?
• 4.Where has your hope felt like 'a giving up of the ghost' — and what would resurrection-hope change?

Devotional

Their eyes fail. They can't escape. And their hope dies like a body exhaling its last breath.

Zophar paints the end of the wicked with three strokes: vision gone (eyes fail — you can't see what's ahead). Options gone (escape perishes — every door is closed). Hope gone (it expires like a dying breath — one exhale and it's over).

The breath metaphor is the most devastating: "the giving up of the ghost." Hope, for the wicked, is as insubstantial as a final exhalation. It leaves the body the way life leaves the dying. One breath. Gone. And nothing remains to breathe another.

The sequence is the anatomy of despair: first you can't see (the future goes dark). Then you can't move (the exits are sealed). Then you can't hope (the internal resource that kept you going expires). When all three are gone — sight, options, hope — you're in the condition Zophar describes. And the condition is final.

Zophar aims this at Job — which is wrong (Job isn't wicked). But the description itself contains truth about what happens when a life built without God reaches its conclusion. Without God, sight fails (you have no eternal perspective). Without God, escape perishes (no transcendent option exists). Without God, hope dies with your body (because that's all your hope was attached to).

The antidote is everything Zophar is missing: a God who gives sight in the dark, opens escape routes in the sealed room, and provides hope that doesn't expire with the body. Job's hope — "I know that my redeemer liveth" (19:25) — outlasts the final breath. Zophar's description of the wicked is accurate. His application to Job is dead wrong.

The hope that expires with the breath is the wrong hope. The hope that survives the breath is the only one worth having.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture