Job 11:20

The wicked. Had Zophar ended with v. 19, Job might have taken comfort from his speech, holding out, as it did, the hope of restoration to God’s favor and a return to happiness. But, as if to accentuate the unfavorable view that he takes of Job’s conduct and character, he does not end with encouraging words, but appends a passage that has a ring of condemnation. Their hope. The clause reads literally, “their hope the breathing out of their life.” The hope of the righteous man lives until it reaches its full realization in heaven. It attends him in health and supports him in sickness; it cheers him in solitude and is his companion in society; it gives meaning to life and supports him in death. The sinner has no such hope. With him all expectation ends when the curtain of death is drawn.