Job 20:7

7 they will perish forever like their own dung; those who have seen 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 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

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

Job 20:7 In-Context

5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
6 Even though they mount up high as the heavens, and their head reaches to the clouds,
7 they will perish forever like their own dung; those who have seen them will say, "Where are they?'
8 They will fly away like a dream, and not be found; they will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw them will see them no more, nor will their place behold them any longer.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.