Job 20:7

7 Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

Job 20:7 Meaning and Commentary

Job 20:7

[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung
Not only in this world, but in the world to come, both in his outward substance here, and in his body in the grave, and in his soul to all eternity, and that in the most shameful and disgraceful manner; he shall perish in his own corruption, and like his own dung inevitably, which is never returned to its place again: dead bodies were reckoned by the ancients as dung, and the carcasses of men are rather to be cast out than dung {i}; and the Arabians used, to bury in dunghills even their kings F11; to which some F12 think the allusion is:

they which have seen him shall say, where [is] he?
such as formerly gazed at him, in his prosperity, with wonder and amazement at his grandeur and greatness, now being removed from his outward splendour, or from the world, by death, ask where he is, not being able to see him in his former lustre, nor in the land of the living; see ( Job 14:10 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F9 Heraclitus apud Strabo. Geograph. l. 16. p. 539.
F11 Strabo, ib.
F12 Pineda in loc.

Job 20:7 In-Context

5 The exultation of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly man but for a moment?
6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds,
7 Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
8 He flieth away as a dream, and is not found; and is chased away as a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him shall [see him] not again; and his place beholdeth him no more.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.