Job 20:6-16

6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

7 he will perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'

8 He will fly away like a dream, and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

10 His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.

11 His bones are full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

12 "Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

13 though he is loath to let it go, and holds it in his mouth,

14 yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the gall of asps within him.

15 He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.

16 He will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill him.

Job 20:6-16 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.