Bible Commentaries
Job 20

Verse 3

20:3 I have heard {a} the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

(a) He declares that two things moved him to speak: that is, because Job seemed to touch him, and because he thought he had knowledge sufficient to confute him.

Verse 6

20:6 Though {b} his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

(b) His purpose is to prove Job to be a wicked man, and a hypocrite, because God punished him, and changed his prosperity into adversity.

Verse 10

20:10 His children shall {c} seek to please the poor, and his hands shall {d} restore their goods.

(c) While the father through ambition and tyranny oppressed the poor, the children through poverty and misery will seek favour from the poor.

(d) So that the thing which he has taken away by violence will be restored again by force.

Verse 11

20:11 His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth, which {e} shall lie down with him in the dust.

(e) Meaning that he will carry nothing away with him but his sin.

Verse 12

20:12 Though wickedness be {f} sweet in his mouth, [though] he hide it under his tongue;

(f) As poison that is sweet in the mouth brings destruction when it comes into the body: so all vice at the first is pleasant, but God later turns it to destruction.

Verse 16

20:16 He shall suck the {g} poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

(g) He compares ill-gotten goods to the venom of asps, which is a dangerous serpent, noting that Jobs great riches were not truly come by and therefore God plagues him justly for the same.

Verse 17

20:17 He shall not see the {h} rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

(h) Though God gives all other abundance from his blessings yet he will have no part of it.

Verse 18

20:18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow [it] down: according to [his] substance [shall] the restitution [be], {i} and he shall not rejoice [therein].

(i) That is these raveners and spoilers of the poor will enjoy their theft but for a time for after God will take it from them, and cause them to make restitution so that it is only an exchange.

Verse 21

20:21 There shall none of his {k} meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

(k) He will leave nothing to his posterity.

Verse 22

20:22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand {l} of the wicked shall come upon him.

(l) The wicked will never be in rest: for one wicked man will seek to destroy another.

Verse 23

20:23 [When] he is about to fill his belly, [God] shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, {m} and shall rain [it] upon him while he is eating.

(m) Some read, upon his flesh, alluding to Job, whose flesh was smitten with a scab.

Verse 25

20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the {n} body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors [are] upon him.

(n) Some read, of the quiver.

Verse 26

20:26 {o} All darkness [shall be] hid in his secret places: a fire not {p} blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

(o) All fear and sorrow will light on him when he thinks to escape.

(p) That is, fire from heaven, or the fire of God’s wrath.

Verse 28

20:28 The {q} increase of his house shall depart, [and his goods] shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

(q) Meaning, the children of the wicked will flow away like rivers and be dispersed in various places.

Verse 29

20:29 This [is] the portion of a wicked man from {r} God, and the heritage appointed unto him by {s} God.

(r) Thus God will plague the wicked.

(s) Against God, thinking to excuse himself, and to escape God’s hand.