Job 20:7

7 but they will be gone forever, like their own dung. People who knew them will say, 'Where are they?'

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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Job 20:7 In-Context

5 The happiness of evil people is brief, and the joy of the wicked lasts only a moment.

6 Their pride may be as high as the heavens, and their heads may touch the clouds,

7 but they will be gone forever, like their own dung. People who knew them will say, 'Where are they?'

8 They will fly away like a dream and not be found again; they will be chased away like a vision in the night.

9 Those who saw them will not see them again; the places where they lived will see them no more.