Job 20:19

19 For he brake, and made naked the house of the poor man; he ravished it, and builded it not. (For he broke into, and emptied out, the house of the poor; and he stole, what he did not build.)

Job 20:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 20:19

Because he hath oppressed [and] hath forsaken the poor
Having oppressed, crushed, and broken the poor to pieces, he leaves them so without pity and compassion for them, and without giving them any relief; he first by oppression makes them poor, or however poorer still, and then leaves them in such circumstances; for this does not suppose that he once was a favourer of them, and afforded them assistance in their necessities, and afterwards forsook them; but rather, as Ben Gersom gives the sense, he does not leave the poor until he has oppressed and crushed them, and then he does; Mr. Broughton's reading of the words agrees with the former sense, "he oppresseth and leaveth poor":

[because] he hath violently taken away an house which he built not;
an house which did not belong to him, he had no property in or right unto, which, as he had not bought, he had not built; and therefore could lay no rightful claim unto it, and yet this he took in a violent manner from the right owner of it, see ( Micah 2:2 ) ; or "and", or "but shall not build it" ^F1, or "buildeth it not"; he took it away with an intention to pull it down, and build a stately palace in the room of it; but either his substance was taken from him, or he taken away by death before he could finish it, and so either through neglect, or want of opportunity, or of money, did not what he thought to have done.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (whnby alw) "et non aedificabit eam", Pagninus, Montanus; "et non aedificat eam", Cocceius, Schultens; "non autem", Beza; "sed non", Schmidt, Michaelis.

Job 20:19 In-Context

17 See he not the streams of the flood of the strand, of honey, and of butter. (He shall not see the streams of oil, or of cream, nor the rivers of honey and butter.)

18 He shall suffer pains for all things which he hath done, nevertheless he shall not be wasted by those pains, but ever endure; and after the multitude of his findings, so shall he suffer (and he shall suffer for the multitude of his deeds).

19 For he brake, and made naked the house of the poor man; he ravished it, and builded it not. (For he broke into, and emptied out, the house of the poor; and he stole, what he did not build.)

20 And his womb was not yet [ful]filled; and when he hath that, that he coveted, he may not hold it in possession. (And his belly, or his appetite, was not yet satisfied; and even when he hath, what he desired, he cannot hold onto it.)

21 There (be) left nothing of his meat; and therefore nothing shall dwell of his goods. (Nothing shall remain of his food; and nothing shall remain of his goods.)