Job 21:20

20 Let their own eyes witness their doom. Let them drink from the Almighty's wrath.

Job 21:20 Meaning and Commentary

Job 21:20

His eyes shall see his destruction
Or "should see his destruction" ^F2; calamities coming upon himself and upon his children; or otherwise it will not affect him: but when a man has a personal experience of affliction as punishments of his sin, or with his own eyes sees his children in distressed circumstances on his account, this must sensibly affect him, and be a sore punishment to him; as it was to Zedekiah to have his children slain before his eyes, ( Jeremiah 52:10 ) ;

and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty;
or "he should drink"

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 of it now, according to the principles of Job's friends, even he in person, and not his posterity only; the wrath of God is on account of sin, and dreadful to bear: if the wrath of a temporal king is as the roaring of a lion, what must be the wrath of the Almighty God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords? this is frequently in Scripture compared to a cup, and is called a cup of trembling, of wrath and fury: and of which all the wicked of the earth shall drink sooner or later, ( Psalms 75:8 ) ; but this they should do now, according to the notions of Job's friends, whereas they do not; waters of a full cup, though not in wrath indeed, are wrung out to the people of God, and, as they apprehend, in wrath, when the wicked drink wine in bowls, and the cup of their prosperity overflows.

F2 (wyrk wnye wary) "videret ejus oculi exitium suum", Beza, Cocceius.
F3 (htvy) "biberet", Beza, Cocceius.

Job 21:20 In-Context

18 Let them be like straw in the wind, like dry grass stolen by a storm.

19 God stores up his punishment for his children. Let him destroy them so they know.

20 Let their own eyes witness their doom. Let them drink from the Almighty's wrath.

21 What do they care about their household after they die, when their numbered days are cut off?

22 Will they instruct God— he who judges the most powerful?