Job 20:10-20

10 His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.

11 His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust.

12 Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue;

13 Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth;

14 His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of snakes is inside him.

15 He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.

16 He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death.

17 Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk.

18 He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.

19 Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

20 There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight.

Job 20:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 20

Zophar and his friends, not satisfied with Job's confession of faith, he in his turn replies, and in his preface gives his reasons why he made any answer at all, and was so quick in it, Job 20:1-3; and appeals to Job for the truth of an old established maxim, that the prosperity of wicked men and hypocrites is very short lived, Job 20:4,5; and the short enjoyment of their happiness is described by several elegant figures and similes, Job 20:6-9; such a wicked man being obliged, in his lifetime, to restore his ill gotten goods, and at death to lie down with the sins of his youth, Job 20:10,11; his sin in getting riches, the disquietude of his mind in retaining them, and his being forced to make restitution, are very beautifully expressed by the simile of a sweet morsel kept in the mouth, and turned to the gall of asps in the bowels, and then vomited up, Job 20:12-16; the disappointment he shall have, the indigent and strait circumstances he shall be brought into, and the restitution he shall be obliged to make for the oppression of the poor, and the uneasiness he shall feel in his own breast, are set forth in a very strong light, Job 20:17-22; and it is suggested, that not only the hand of wicked men should be upon him, but the wrath of God also, which should seize on him suddenly and secretly, and would be inevitable, he not being able to make his escape from it, and which would issue in the utter destruction of him and his in this world, and that to come, Job 20:23-28. And the chapter is, concluded with this observation, that such as before described is the appointed portion and heritage of a wicked man from God, Job 20:29.