But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. A warning to Job, if he would not turn to God.
The wicked - i:e., obdurate sinners.
Eyes ... fail - i:e., in vain look for relief (Deuteronomy 28:65). Zophar implies Job's only hope of relief is in a change of heart.
They shall not escape - literally, 'every refuge shall vanish from them.' So Psalms 142:4, 'Refuge perished from me,' margin.
Their hope shall be as the giving up the ghost - their hope shall leave them as the breath does the body. "When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish" (Proverbs 11:7).
Remarks:
(1) If we desire the good of him whom we would reprove, we must speak meekly and lovingly, not with exaggeration, harshness, and injustice. If Job used, so he had done, a "multitude of words," love might have suggested that it was not without some palliation: his sufferings were many and acute. To have recognized this in the first instance, as well as his past integrity of character, would have prepared the way for reproving him in those respects wherein his present temper and words were really reprehensible.
(2) Not "the multitude of words" but the power of the Holy Spirit, can assure any man of his justification (1 Thess (2) Not "the multitude of words" but the power of the Holy Spirit, can assure any man of his justification (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Man's protestations of his own purity and cleanness (Job 11:4) only ensure his condemnation. His true wisdom is to hasten before the throne of mercy with full acknowledgment of his guilt and uncleanness.
(3) However severe our trials be, we may take one thing as sure, namely, that God always "exacteth less of" us than our "iniquity deserveth" (Job 11:6).
(4) We are too apt to form our estimate of sin in general, and of our own sin in particular, by the low standard of our own intellectual and mortal comprehensions. The antidote to this tendency is that we should call to mind the infinitude of God's wisdom (Job 11:7, etc.), and the far-searching ken of His omniscience, which sees sin in man where man himself suspects none. Our wisdom is to cry to God, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalms 139:23-24).
(5) Man, by nature "empty," and wild (spiritually) as the wild ass' colt is physically, ceases from his folly when he turns to God with uplifted hands and prepared heart (Job 11:13; Lamentations 3:41): but in doing so he must see that no iniquity still cleave to his hand, and no wickedness be harboured in his dwelling (Job 11:14): for if we regard iniquity in our heart-and we must do so if we suffer it externally in our hands or dwelling-the Lord will not hear us.
(6) All good things, here imperfectly, hereafter perfectly, shall be the portion of him who walks closely with God. The believer can "lift up his face without spot" to God, as a reconciled Father, in trust. Fear gives place to love. Soon former troubles shall be for ever forgotten (Job 11:16), or only remembered to enhance the joy of present salvation: "The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43; Job 11:17); and whereas "the hope of the wicked shall be as the giving up of the ghost," the godly shall rest in secure blessedness forever.