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Easton's Bible Dictionary
chirping, One of Job's friends who came to condole with
him in his distress ( Job
2:11 . The LXX.
render here "king of the Mineans" = Ma'in, Maonites, Judges
10:12 , in Southern Arabia). He is called a Naamathite, or an inhabitant of
some unknown place called Naamah.
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
rising early; crown
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(sparrow) One of the three friends of Job. ( Job
2:11 ; 11:1
; 20:1
; 42:9
)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
zo'-far (tsphar, meaning doubtful, supposed from root
meaning "to leap"; Sophar):
One of the three friends of Job who, hearing of his affliction, make an appointment
together to visit and comfort him. He is from the tribe of Naamah, a tribe and
place otherwise unknown, for as all the other friends and Job himself are from
lands outside of Palestine, it is not likely that this place was identical with
Naamah in the West of Judah (Joshua
15:41).
He speaks but twice (Job
11 ; 20);
by his silence the 3rd time the writer seems to intimate that with Bildad's third
speech (Job
25; see under BILDAD)
the friends' arguments are exhausted. He is the most impetuous and dogmatic of
the three (compare Job
11:2 , 3
; 20:2
, 3);
stung to passionate response by Job's presumption in maintaining that he is wronged
and is seeking light from God. His words are in a key of intensity amounting to
reckless exaggeration. He is the first to accuse Job directly of wickedness; averring
indeed that his punishment is too good for him (Job
11:6); he rebukes Job's impious presumption in trying to find out the unsearchable
secrets of God (Job
11:7 - 12);
and yet, like the rest of the friends, promises peace and restoration on condition
of penitence and putting away iniquity (Job
11:13 - 19).
Even from this promise, however, he reverts to the fearful peril of the wicked
(Job
11:20); and in his 2nd speech, outdoing the others, he presses their lurid
description of the wicked man's woes to the extreme (Job
20:5 - 29),
and calls forth a straight contradiction from Job, who, not in wrath, but in dismay,
is constrained by loyalty to truth to acknowledge things as they are. Zophar seems
designed to represent the wrong-headedness of the odium theologicum.
John Franklin Genung
Tags:
bible commentary, bible reference, bible study, define, friend of job, history of, sophar, tsphar, zophar
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