person
Zophar
צוֹפַר
Zophar the Naamathite was one of Job's three friends who came to comfort him during his affliction.
- verses
- 4
- first named
- Job 2:11
- last named
- Job 42:9
- period
- the Patriarchs
- role
- Man
Description
Who was Zophar?
Zophar the Naamathite was one of the three friends of Job who came to comfort him during his time of suffering. Along with Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar visited Job after hearing about his affliction (Job.2.11). Zophar is mentioned as the third speaker in the cycles of dialogue between Job and his friends. In his first speech (Job 11), Zophar rebukes Job for justifying himself and accuses him of mocking God. He asserts that God's wisdom is unsearchable and that Job should repent of his supposed sins. In his second speech (Job 20), Zophar describes the fate of the wicked, implying that Job's suffering is a result of his wrongdoing. Zophar's speeches reflect the traditional belief that suffering is a consequence of sin and that righteousness leads to prosperity. However, the book of Job challenges this simplistic view and presents a more complex understanding of God's justice and human suffering. In the end, God rebukes Zophar and his friends for speaking falsely about Him and instructs them to offer sacrifices and seek Job's intercession (Job.42.7-9).
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 4, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- Job 2Zophar comes with Eliphaz and Bildad to sympathize with Job and comfort him, then sits silent beside him.
- Job 11Zophar replied to Job with accusations, a vast account of God’s wisdom, and promises of brightness and safety.
- Job 20Zophar answers Job’s rebuke with an anxious account of the wicked man’s brief triumph and appointed ruin.
- Job 42Zophar went with Eliphaz and Bildad to Job and did as the LORD had told them.
Sources