Albert Barnes Commentary Job 27:13

"This is the portion of a wicked man with God, And the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty:" — Job 27:13 (ASV)

This is the portion of a wicked man with God - There has been much diversity of view regarding the remainder of this chapter. The difficulty is that Job seems here to state the same things that had been maintained by his friends, and against which he had contended all along. This difficulty has been felt to be very great, and is very great.

It cannot be denied that there is a great resemblance between the sentiments expressed here and those that had been maintained by his friends, and that this speech, if offered by them, would have accorded entirely with their main position. Job seems to abandon all that he had defended and to concede all that he had so warmly condemned. One way of explaining the difficulty has been suggested in the “Analysis” of the chapter.

It was proposed by Noyes, and is plausible, but, perhaps, will not be regarded as satisfactory to all. Dr. Kennicott supposes that the text is imperfect and that these verses constituted the third speech of Zophar. His arguments for this opinion are:

1. That Eliphaz and Bildad had each spoken three times, and that we are naturally led to expect a third speech from Zophar; but, according to the present arrangement, there is none.
2. That the sentiments accord exactly with what Zophar might be expected to advance and are exactly in his style; that they are expressed in “his fierce manner of accusation” and are “in the very place where Zophar’s speech is naturally expected.”

But the objections to this view are insuperable. They are:

1. The entire lack of any authority in the manuscripts or ancient versions for such an arrangement or supposition. All the ancient versions and manuscripts make this a part of the speech of Job.
2. If this had been a speech of Zophar, we should have expected a reply to it, or an allusion to it, in the speech of Job that follows. But no such reply or allusion occurs.
3. If the form which is usual on the opening of a speech, “And Zophar answered and said,” had ever existed here, it is incredible that it should have been removed. But it occurs in no manuscript or version, and it is not allowable to make such an alteration in the Scripture by conjecture.

Wemyss, in his translation of Job, accords with the view of Kennicott and makes these verses (Job 27:13–23) to be the third speech of Zophar. For this, however, he alleges no authority and no reasons except such as had been suggested by Kennicott. Coverdale, in his translation of the Bible (1553 AD), has inserted the word “saying” at the close of Job 27:12 and regards what follows to the end of the chapter as an enumeration or recapitulation of the false sentiments that they had maintained, and which Job regards as the vain things (Job 27:12) that they had maintained. In support of this view, the following reasons may be alleged:

1. It avoids all the difficulty of transposition and the necessity of inserting an introduction, as we would have to do if we suppose it to be a speech of Zophar.
2. It avoids the difficulty of supposing that Job had here contradicted the sentiments that he had previously advanced, or of conceding all that his friends had maintained.
3. It is in accordance with the practice of the speakers in this book, and the usual practice of debaters, who enumerate at considerable length the sentiments that they regard as erroneous and that they design to oppose.
4. It is the most simple and natural supposition, and, therefore, most likely to be the true one. Still, it must be admitted that the passage is attended with difficulty; but the above solution is, it seems to me, the most plausible.

This is the portion - This is what he receives; namely, what he states in the following verses, that his children would be cut off.

And the heritage of oppressors - What tyrants and cruel people must expect to receive at the hand of God.