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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 20:21 - 20:21
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
21 Nothing escaped his covetousness,
Therefore his prosperity shall not continue.
22 In the fulness of his need it shall be strait with him,
Every hand of the needy shall come upon him.
23 It shall come to pass: in order to fill his belly,
He sendeth forth the glow of His anger into him,
And He causeth it to rain upon him into his flesh.
24 He must flee from an iron weapon,
Therefore a brazen bow pierceth him through.
25 It teareth, then it cometh forth out of his body,
And the steel out of his gall,
The terrors of death come upon him.
The words of Job 20:21 are: there was nothing that escaped (שָׂרִיד, as Job 18:19, from שָׂרַד, Arab. šarada, aufugere) his eating (from אֱכֹל, not from אֹכֶל), i.e., he devoured everything without sparing, even to the last remnant; therefore טוּבֹו, his prosperity, his abundant wealth, will not continue or hold out (יָחִיל, as Psa 10:5, to be solid, powerful, enduring, whence חַיִל, Arab. ȟı̂lat, ḥawl). Hupf. transl. differently: nihil ei superstes ad vescendum, itaque non durant ejus bona; but שׂריד signifies first elapsum, and על־כן propterea; and we may retain these first significations, especially since Job 20:21 is not future like Job 20:21. The tone of prediction taken up in Job 20:21 is continued in what follows. The inf. constr. מְלֹאות (prop. מְלאות, but with Cholem by the Aleph, since the Waw is regarded as יתיר, superfluous), formed after the manner of the verbs Lamed He (Ew. 238, c), is written like קְרֹאות, Jdg 8:1 (comp. on the other hand the scriptio devectiva, Lev 8:33; Lev 12:4); and שִׂפְקֹו (with Sin, as Norzi decides after Codd., Kimchi, and Farisol, not Samech) is to be derived from שֵׂפֶק (סֵפֶק), sufficientia (comp. the verb, 1Ki 20:10): if his sufficiency exists in abundance, not from שֵׂפֶק = Arab. safqat, ṣafqat, complosio, according to which Schultens explains: if his joyous clapping of hands has reached its highest point (Elizabeth Smith: “while clapping the hands in the fulness of joy”), to which מלאות is not suitable, and which ought at least to be שֵׁפֶק כַּפָּיו. Therefore: in the fulness of his need shall he be straitened (יֵצֶר with the tone drawn back for יֵצַר on account of the following monosyllable, although also apocopated futt. follow further on in the strict future signification, according to poetic usage), by which not merely the fearful foreboding is meant, which just in the fullest overflow makes known his impending lot, but the real calamity, into which his towering prosperity suddenly changes, as Job 20:22 shows: All the hands of the destitute come upon him (בֹּוא seq. acc.: invadere) to avenge on him the injustice done to the needy. It is not necessary to understand merely such as he has made destitute, it is כָּל־יַד; the assertion is therefore general: the rich uncompassionate man becomes a defenceless prey of the proletaries.
Job 20:23
The יְהִי which opens this verse (and which also occurs elsewhere, e.g., Job 18:12, in a purely future signification), here, like וִיהִי, 2Sa 5:24 (Ew. §333, b), serves to introduce the following יְשַׁלַּח (it shall happen: He shall send forth); וַיְהִי (e.g., Gen 40:1) frequent in the historical style, and וְהָיָה in the prophetical, are similarly used. In order to fill his belly, which is insatiable, God will send forth against him His glowing wrath (comp. Lam 1:13, from on high hath He sent fire into my bones), and will rain upon him into his flesh, or his plumpness (Arab. fi lachmihi). Thus we believe בִּלְחוּמֹו must be understood by referring to Zep 1:17; where, perhaps not without reference to this speech of Zophar, the כַּגְּלָלִים, which serves to explain Job 20:7, coincides with וּלְחֻמָּם, which serves to explain this בלחומו; and the right meaning is not even missed by the lxx, which translates καὶ τὰς σάρκας αὐτῶν ὡς βόλβιτα.
(Note: This passage is translated: and their blood is poured forth as dust, i.e., useless rubbish (Arab. el-ghabra אלעֹברה), and their flesh as filth. The form of inflection לְחֻמָּם is referable to לְחֹם after the form לְאֹם.)
A suitable thought is obtained if לְחוּם is taken in the signification, food: He will rain upon him his food, i.e., what is fit for him (with Beth of the instrument instead of the accusative of the object), or: He will rain down (His wrath) upon him as his food (with Beth essent., according to which Ew.: what can satisfy him; Bridel: pour son aliment; Renan: en guise de pain); but we give the preference to the other interpretation, because it is at once natural in this book, abounding in Arabisms, to suppose for לחום the signification of the Arab. laḥm, which is also supported in Hebrew by Zep 1:17; further, because the Targ. favours it, which transl. בְּשִׁלְדֵיהּ, and expositors, as Aben-Ezra and Ralbag, who interpret by בבשׂרו; finally, because it gives an appropriate idea, to which Lam 1:13 presents a commendable parallel, comp. also Jam 5:3, and Koran, Sur. 2, 169: "those who hide what God has sent down by the Scripture, and thereby obtain a small profit, eat only fire into their belly.” That עָלֵימֹו can be used pathetically for עָלָיו is unmistakeably clear from Job 22:2, comp. Job 27:23, and on Psa 11:7; the morally indignant speech which threatens punishment, intentionally seeks after rare solemn words and darksome tones. Therefore: Upon his flesh, which has been nourished in unsympathizing greediness, God rains down, i.e., rain of fire, which scorches it. This is the hidden background of the lot of punishment, the active principle of which, though it be effected by human agency, is the punitive power of the fire of divine wrath. Job 20:24 describe, by illustration, how it is worked out. The evil-doer flees from a hostile superior power, is hit in the back by the enemy's arrows; and since he, one who is overthrown, seeks to get free from them, he is made to feel the terrors of inevitably approaching death.
Job 20:24
The two futt. may be arranged as in a conditional clause, like Psa 91:7, comp. Amo 9:2-4; and this is, as it seems, the mutual relation of the two expressions designed by the poet (similar to Isa 24:18): if he flee from the weapons of iron, i.e., the deadly weapon in the thick of the fight, he succumbs to that which is destructive by and by: the bow of brass (נְחוּשָׁה poet. for נְחֹשֶׁת, as Psa 18:35, although it might also be an adj., since eth, as the Arab. qaws shows, is really a feminine termination) will pierce him through (fut. Kal of חָלַף, Arab. chlf, to press further and further, press after, here as in Jdg 5:26). The flight of the disheartened is a punishment which is completed by his being hit while fleeing by the arrow which the brazen bow sends with swift power after him. In Job 20:25 the Targ. reads מִגֵּוָהּ with He mappic., and translates: he (the enemy, or God) draws (stringit), and it (the sword) comes out of its sheath, which is to be rejected because גֵּו cannot signify vagina. Kimchi and most Jewish expositors interpret מִגֵּוָה by מִגּוּף; the lxx also translates it σῶμα. To understand it according to גֵּו (back), of the hinder part of the body, gives no suitable sense, since the evil-doer is imagined as hit in the back, the arrow consequently passing out at the front;
(Note: Thus sings the warrior Cana'an Têjâr (died about 1815) after the loss of his wife: -
"My grief for her is the brief of him whose horse is dashed in pieces in the desert.
The way is wild, and there is no help from the travellers who have hurried on before.
My groaning is like the groaning of one who, mortally wounded between the shoulders,
Will flee, and trails after him the lance that is fastened in him.”
- Wetzst.)
whereas the signification body is suitable, and is also made sufficiently certain by the cognate form גְּוִיָּה. The verb שָׁלַף, however, is used as in Jdg 3:22 : he who is hit drawn the arrow out, then it comes out of his body, into which it is driven deep; and the glance, i.e., the metal head of the arrow (like לַהַב, Jdg 3:22, the point in distinction from the shaft), out of his gall (מְרֹרָה = מְרֵרָה, Job 16:13, so called from its bitterness, as χολή, χόλος, comp. χλόος, χλωρός, from the green-yellow colour), since, as the Syriac version freely translates, his gall-bladder is burst.
(Note: Abulwalid (in Kimchi) understands the red gall, i.e., the gall-bladder, by מרורה, after the Arabic marâre. If this is pierced, its contents are emptied into the lower part of the body, and the man dies.)
Is יַהֲלֹךְ, as a parallel word to וַיֵּצֵא, to be connected with ממררתו, or with what follows? The accentuation varies. The ordinary interpunction is וברק with Dechî, ממררתו Mercha, or more correctly Mercha-Zinnorith, יהלך Rebia mugrasch (according to which, Ew., Umbr., Vaih., Welte, Hahn, Schlottm., and Olsh. divide); ממררתו is, however, also found with Athnach. Although the latter mode of accentuation is only feebly supported, we nevertheless consider it as the more correct, for עָלָיו אֵמִים, in the mind of the poet, can hardly have formed a line of the verse. If, however, יהלךְ עליו אמים is now taken together, it is a matter for inquiry whether it is to be explained: he passes away, since terrors come upon him (Schult., Rosenm., Hirz., Von Gerl., Carey), or: terrors come upon him (lxx, Targ., Syr., Jer., Ramban). We consider the latter as the only correct interpretation; for if יהלךְ ought to be understood after Job 14:20; Job 16:22, the poet would have expressed himself ambiguously, since it is at least as natural to consider אמים as the subject of יהלךְ, as to take עליו אמים as an adverbial clause. The former, however, is both natural according to the syntax (vid., Ges. §147, a) and suitable in matter: terrors (i.e., of certain death to him in a short time) draw on upon him, and accordingly we decide in its favour.