Job 20:8

8 They will fade like a dream and not be found. They will vanish like a vision in the night.

Job 20:8 Meaning and Commentary

Job 20:8

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found
Either as a dream which is forgotten, as Nebuchadnezzar's was, and cannot be recovered; or as the matter and substance of a dream, which, though remembered, is a mere illusion; as when a hungry or thirsty man dreams he eats or drinks, but, awaking, finds himself empty, and not at all refreshed; what he fancied is fled and gone ^F13, and indeed never had any existence but in his imagination, ( Isaiah 29:8 ) ;

yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night;
either the same as a nocturnal dream, or what a man fancies he sees in his dream; or like a mere spectre or apparition, which is a mere phantom, and, when followed and pursued, vanishes and disappears; so such a man before described is chased out of the world, and is seen in it no more, see ( Job 18:18 ) ; the first clause, according to Sephorno, refers to the generation of the flood, and the second to the slaying of the firstborn of Egypt in the night.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (skiav onar anyrwpoi) , Pindar. Pythia, Ode 8.

Job 20:8 In-Context

6 Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens and their heads touch the clouds,

7 yet they will vanish forever, thrown away like their own dung. Those who knew them will ask, ‘Where are they?’

8 They will fade like a dream and not be found. They will vanish like a vision in the night.

9 Those who once saw them will see them no more. Their families will never see them again.

10 Their children will beg from the poor, for they must give back their stolen riches.