Job 20:1-2 - Exposition

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer . Zophar "has heard the check of his reproach" ( Job 20:3 ), i.e. the reproach contained in the last words of Job in the preceding chapter. Therefore his thoughts rise up within him, and com-psi him to make a reply. He cannot allow Job to shift the onus of guilt and the menace of punishment on his friends, when it is he, Job, that is the guilty person, over whom the judgments of God impend. And for this I make haste ; rather, and because of my haste that is within me (see the Revised Version); i.e. "because I am of a hasty and impetuous temperament."