31 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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; and appeals to Job for the truth of an old established maxim, that the prosperity of wicked men and hypocrites is very short...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... Notwithstanding the sad distressed condition Job was in, an account of which is given in the preceding chapter, enough to pierce a heart of stone, notwithstanding his earnest request to his friends to have pity on him, and notwithstanding the noble confession of his faith he had made, which showed him to be...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
One would have thought that such an excellent confession of faith as Job made, in the close of the foregoing chapter, would satisfy his friends, or at least mollify them; but they do not seem to have taken any notice of it, and therefore Zophar here takes his turn, enters the lists with Job, and attacks him with as much vehemence as before. I. His...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,.... Or "to return" (a) and appear upon the stage again, and enter the lists once more with his antagonist; he suggests as if he had intended to have said no more in this controversy, but observing what Job had said last, could not forbear replying: "therefore" because he had represented him and his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I have heard the check of my reproach,.... He took it that Job had reproached him and his friends, by representing them as hardhearted men, and persecuting him wrongly in a violent manner; and he had observed the "check" or reproof given for it, by bidding them beware of the sword, and lest the punishment of it should be inflicted on them; and if...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Knowest thou [not] this of old,.... Or "from eternity" (g), from the beginning of time, ever since the world was; as if he should say, if you are the knowing man you pretend to be, you must know this I am about to observe; and if you do not know it, you must be an ignorant man, since it is an ancient truth, confirmed by all experience from the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That the triumphing of the wicked [is] short,.... Their outward prosperity and felicity, of which they make their boast, and in which they glory and triumph for a while; at first Job's friends set out with this notion, that the wicked never flourished and prospered, but it always went ill with them in Providence; but being beat out of that, they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,.... Though, in worldly grandeur and glory, he should arrive to such a pitch as the Assyrian monarch was ambitious of, as to ascend into heaven, exalt his throne above the stars of God, and be like the Most High; or be comparable to such a tree, by which the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung,.... Not only in this world, but in the world to come, both in his outward substance here, and in his body in the grave, and in his soul to all eternity, and that in the most shameful and disgraceful manner; he shall perish in his own corruption, and like his own dung inevitably, which is never...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The eye also [which] saw him shall [see him] no more,.... In this world, concerned in the affairs of life, and busy in worldly employments, and especially in the grandeur he sometimes was, if not removed by death; but the former sense seems most agreeable by what follows, neither shall his place any more behold him; the men of his place, as Ben...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
His children shall seek to please the poor,.... In this and some following verses the miserable state of a wicked man is described, and which begins with his children, who are often visited in wrath for their parents' sins, especially when they tread in their steps, and follow their example; and it is an affliction to parents to see their children...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
His bones are full [of the sins] of his youth,.... Man is born in sin, and is a transgressor from the womb; and the youthful age is addicted to many sins, as pride, passion, lust, luxury, intemperance, and uncleanness; and these are sometimes brought to mind, and men are convinced of them, and corrected for them, when more advanced in years; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,.... Which may respect some particular sin, and by the context it seems to be the sin of covetousness, or of getting riches in an unlawful way, which is very sweet and pleasing to wicked men, while they are in such pursuits that succeed; and so Mr. Broughton renders it by "wrong"; though it may be applied to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Though] he spare it,.... Not that he feeds sparingly on it, for he eats of it freely and plentifully, with great eagerness and greediness; it designs the gratefulness of it to him; he does not spit it out as loathsome, having tasted of it, but retains it as sweet and pleasant; he spares it as Saul did Agag, and as a man spares his only son; sin...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Yet] his meat in his bowels is turned,.... Or "his bread" (r), to which sin is compared, being what the sinner lives in, and lives upon; what he strengthens himself in and with, and by which he is nourished unto the day of slaughter, and by means of which he grows and proceeds to more ungodliness, though in the issue he comes into starving and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He hath swallowed down riches,.... Not his own, but another's, which he has spoiled him of and devoured, with as much eagerness, pleasure, and delight, as a hungry man swallows down his food; having an excessive and immoderate love of riches, and an insatiable desire after them, which make him stop at nothing, though ever so illicit, to obtain...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He shall suck the poison of asps,.... Or "the head of asps" (u); for their poison lies in their heads, particularly in their "teeth" (w); or rather is a liquor in the gums, yellow like oil (x); according to Pliny (y), in copulation the male puts his head into the mouth of the female, which she sucks and gnaws off through the sweetness of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He shall not see the rivers,.... Of water, or meet with any to assuage his thirst, which poison excites, and so makes a man wish for water, and desire large quantities; but this shall not be granted the wicked man; this might be illustrated in the case of the rich man in hell, who desired a drop of cold water to cool his tongue, but could not have...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That which he laboured for shall he restore,.... This explains what was before figuratively expressed by vomiting, Job 20:15; and is to be interpreted either of that which another laboured for; so the Targum paraphrases it, "another's labour;'' and Mr. Broughton renders it, "he shall restore what man's pain get": and then the sense is, that that...