Job 21:20

20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

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 How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?

19 You say, "God stores up their iniquity for their children.' Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.

20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what do they care for their household after them, when the number of their months is cut off?

22 Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those that are on high?

Footnotes

• [a]. Traditional rendering of Heb [Shaddai]