Job 20:19

Because hee hath oppressed, and hath forsaken the poore; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not: Job 20:19 (KJV)

The verse is spoken by Zophar the Naamathite, one of Job’s three friends, in his response to Job’s lament. Zophar, like Eliphaz and Bildad, assumes that Job’s intense suffering must be the direct result of personal sin. In this particular address he turns his focus to the fate of the wicked, describing the crimes that bring divine judgment.

Zophar declares that the wicked oppress and abandon the poor, showing a complete lack of compassion for those who are vulnerable. By “forsaking the poor” he highlights a moral failure to care for the needy, a breach of the covenantal ethic that calls the righteous to protect the helpless. The second accusation is that the wicked “violently take away an house which he builded not.” This language portrays an act of theft and unjust acquisition, a forceful seizure of property that belongs to another. The image of a house not built by the oppressor underscores the illegitimacy of the gain; the wicked profit from violence rather than honest labor.

Zophar’s purpose in citing these sins is to convince Job that his own afflictions are a just recompense for similar wrongdoing. He presents the oppression of the poor and the unlawful seizure of property as clear markers of wickedness that inevitably draw God’s wrath. The passage therefore serves both as a diagnostic tool—identifying the behaviors that merit divine punishment—and as a warning to the audience to avoid such conduct.

In the broader context of Job, Zophar’s argument reflects the traditional retributive theology of the ancient Near East, which equates suffering with sin. While the book later reveals the inadequacy of this simple equation, the verse remains a vivid illustration of how the wicked are portrayed: as those who exploit the vulnerable and seize what is not theirs, inviting inevitable judgment.