Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.
Parallel Translations
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Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.
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They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
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They that come after shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before are affrighted.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Job 18:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 37:13 The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming.
- Jeremiah 50:27 Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.
- Ezekiel 21:25 “ ‘You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,
- Deuteronomy 29:23-24 that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. Even all the nations will say, “Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”
- 1 Kings 9:8 Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land, and to this house?’
- Job 2:12-13 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
- Job 19:13-19 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me. All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
- Psalms 137:7 Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”
- Jeremiah 18:16 to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and shake his head.
- Obadiah 1:11-15 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them. But don’t look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don’t speak proudly in the day of distress. Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity. Don’t stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don’t deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress. For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.
- Luke 19:42 saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.
- Luke 19:44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain When they shall see what came unto him.
When they shall see what came unto him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 18:20 They that come after [him] shall be…
Job 18:20 They that come after [him] shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
Ver. 20. They that come after him shall be astonied at his day] Future ages, hearing the relation of his dismal destruction, shall stand aghast, as if they beheld the dirty ruins of some once beautiful city. Happy they, if in good earnest they could make that good use of it which Herodotus, the historian, saith men should make of the overthrow of Troy; viz. to take notice thereby that great sinners must look for great punishments from God, Tων μεγαλων αδικηματων μεγαλιε εισι και αι τιμωριαι παρα του Yεου (Herod.). But Ham and his posterity were little the better for the deluge in their days, nor the adjacent countries for Sodom’s downhill.
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As they that went before were affrighted] sc. His contemporaries and eyewitnesses of his calamity apprehended horror, so the Hebrew hath it, they took a fright; which yet was little to the purpose without faith and repentance; and unless their hearts fell down when their hairs stood upright.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain At his day, i.e. at the day of his…
At his day, i.e. at the day of his destruction, as the word day is used, Psa 37:13; 137:7; Eze 21:25; Oba 1:12. They shall be amazed at the suddenness, and dreadfulness, and prodigiousness of it, as Job’s friends were at his calamities, Job 2:12,13. They that went before, i.e. before the persons last mentioned; those who lived in the time and place where this judgment was inflicted.
Affrighted; or, filled with horror; partly through humanity and compassion, and partly for fear, lest the judgment should overtake them also.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,.... As…
Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,.... As before described; as that the light should be dark in them; a wicked man's confidence should be rooted out of them; everything shocking and dreadful should dwell in them; brimstone should be scattered on them, they should be utterly consumed, and none remaining in them, Job 18:6. The Targum represents these as the words of the persons astonished and frightened, who at the sight of such a dismal spectacle should utter them, prefacing them thus,
"and they shall say, but these are the dwellings, &c.''
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and this is the place of him that knoweth not God; the place that he shall be driven to when chased out of the world, even a place of darkness and misery, Job 18:18; or "this is the case of him that knoweth not the Omnipotent", as Mr. Broughton translates the words; that is, which is above described in the several particulars of it; this is sooner or later the case of every wicked man, as Bildad supposed it now was Job's case, at least in part, or would be hereafter: one "that knows not God", is the periphrasis of a wicked man, that has no knowledge of God, at least no practical knowledge of him, that lives without God in the world, or like an atheist; such shall be punished with everlasting destruction by him, see Th2 1:8; either one whom "God knows not" (q), so some render the words; for though God by the perfection of his omniscience knows all men, good and bad, yet there are some he knows not so as to approve of, love, and delight in, see Mat 7:23; or rather that have no knowledge of God, who though they may know there is a God, yet do not worship and glorify him as God; and though they may profess to know him, yet in works they deny him, and however have no spiritual and experimental knowledge of him; do not know him in Christ, as the God of all grace, and as their God in him; they do not know him, so as to love him, fear, worship, and obey him.
(q) "quem non agnoscit Deus fortis", Junius.
Next: Job Chapter 19
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Astonied - At the day of his destruction. They…
Astonied - At the day of his destruction. They shall be amazed at the suddenness, and dreadfulness of it. Before - Before the persons last mentioned. Those who lived in the time and place where this judgment was inflicted.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. They that come after him] The young…
Verse 20. They that come after him] The young shall be struck with astonishment when they hear the relation of the judgments of God upon this wicked man. As they that went before. The aged who were his contemporaries, and who saw the judgments that fell on him, were affrighted, אחזו שער achazu saar, seized with horror - were horrified; or, as Mr. Good has well expressed it, were panic-struck.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 18:20-21. They that come after him — And…
Job 18:20-21. They that come after him — And hear the report of it, shall be astonied at his day — The day of his destruction. They shall be amazed at the suddenness and dreadfulness of it. As they that went before were affrighted — As his elders (so Heath renders it) were seized with horror; namely, those who lived in the time and place where this judgment was inflicted. Hebrew, אחזו שׂער, achazu sagnar, apprehenderunt horrorem, they took hold on horror, a beautiful metonymy, as if they took hold on their hair, which, by reason of the terror they were in, stood upright. Or, They were filled with horror, partly through humanity and compassion, and partly for fear lest the judgment should overtake them also. “The plain meaning of the verse seems to be, His elders, who saw so signal an instance of divine vengeance, were seized with horror; and whoever, in after times, should hear his story related, would be in amazement at it.” — Heath. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked — This is a just description of their miserable condition at last, and thus shall those who dishonour God be abased. Such, according to Eliphaz, was the unanimous sense of the patriarchal age, grounded on their knowledge of God and the many observations which they had made on the dispensations of his providence. And this is the place of him that knoweth not God — Who is not truly acquainted with him, and reconciled to him; who does not know him experimentally and practically, so as truly to fear, love, and serve him, or who, professing to know him, by works denies him. Here then we see what is the beginning and what is the end of the wickedness of mankind. The beginning of it is ignorance of God, which ignorance is wilful, for God has made to all men those discoveries of himself which are sufficient to render those of them for ever inexcusable who live and die ignorant of him and disobedient to him. The end of it is utter destruction. Such, so miserable, are the dwellings of the wicked. Vengeance will be taken on them that know not God, and obey not his revealed will, 2Th 1:8. Let us therefore stand in awe, and not sin, for it will certainly be bitterness in the latter end: nay, let us acquaint ourselves with him and be at peace; for thereby good will come unto us, in time and in eternity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They that come after him - Future ages; they…
They that come after him - Future ages; they who may hear of his history and of the manner in which he was cut off from life. So the passage has been generally rendered; so, substantially, it is by Dr. Good, Dr. Noyes, Rosenmuller, and Luther. The Vulgate translates it novissimi; the Septuagint, ἔσχατοι eschatoi - “the last” - meaning those that should live after him, or at a later period. But Schultens supposes that the word used here denotes those in “the West,” and the corresponding word rendered “went before,” denotes those in “the East.” With this view Wemyss concurs, who renders the whole verse:
“The West shall be astonished at his end;
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The East shall be panic-struck.”
According to this, it means that those who dwelt in the remotest regions would be astonished at the calamities which would come upon him. It seems to me that this accords better with the scope of the passage than the other interpretation, and avoids some difficulties which cannot be separated from the other view. The word translated in our version, “that come after him” אחרינים 'achăryônı̂ym is from אחר 'âchar, to be after, or behind; to stay behind, to delay, remain. It then means “after,” or “behind;” and as in the geography of the Orientals the face was supposed to be turned to “the East,” instead of being turned to the North, as with us - a much more natural position than ours - the word “after,” or “behind,” comes to denote West, the right hand the South, the left the North; see the notes at Job 23:8-9.
Thus, the phrase האחרין הים hayâm hā'achăryôn - “the sea behind, denotes the Mediterranean sea - the West; Deu 24:3; see also Deu 11:24; Deu 34:2; Joe 2:20, where the same phrase in Hebrew occurs. Those who dwelt in the “West,” therefore, would be accurately referred to by this phrase.
Shall be astonied - Shall be “astonished” - the old mode of writing the word being “astonied;” Isa 52:14. It is not known, however, to be used in any other book than the Bible.
As they that went before - Margin, or “lived with him.” Noyes, “his elders shall be struck with horror.” Vulgate, “et primos invadet “horror.” Septuagint, “amazement seizes “the first” - πρώτους prōtous. But the more correct interpretation is that which refers it to the people of the East. The word קדמנים qadmônı̂ym is from קדם qâdam to precede, to go before; and then the derivatives refer to that which goes before, which is in front, etc.; and as face was turned to the East by geographers, the word comes to express that which is in the East, or near the sun-rising; see Joe 2:20; Job 23:8; Gen 2:8. Hence, the phrase קדם בני benēy qedem - “sons of the East” - meaning the persons who dwelt east of Palestine; Job 1:3; Isa 11:14; Gen 25:6; Gen 29:1. The word used here, (קדמנים qadmônı̂ym), is used to denote the people or the regions of the East; in Eze 47:8, Eze 47:18; Zec 14:8. Here it means, as it seems to me, the people of the East; and the idea is that people everywhere would be astonished at the doom of the wicked man. His punishment would be so sudden and entire as to hold the world mute with amazement.
Were affrighted - Margin, “laid hold on horror.” This is a more literal rendering. The sense is, they would be struck with horror at what would occur to him.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Them. Literally, "the first," who were witnesses of his…
Them. Literally, "the first," who were witnesses of his misery. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain after . . . before--rather, "those in the West--those…
after . . . before--rather, "those in the West--those in the East"; that is, all people; literally, "those behind--those before"; for Orientals in geography turn with their faces to the east (not to the north as we), and back to the west; so that before--east; behind--north (so Zac 14:8).
day--of ruin (Oba 1:12).
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affrighted--seized with terror (Job 21:6; Isa 13:8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. They that come after him… they that went…
20. They that come after him… they that went before — Ewald, Dillman, Zockler, read, “Men of the west;”… “Men of the east;” that is, Men of all lands; while others prefer the reading of the Authorized Version. The words קדמנים and אחרנים signify things behind and before, and may be spoken either of time or of place. The Hebrew marked the points of the compass with his face to the east; the right hand signified the south; the left, the north; before, the east; behind, the west.
His day — The day of a man’s doom is his day, for it is all that remains to him.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. They that come after him] The word “him”…
20. They that come after him] The word “him” must be omitted; the expression refers to the later generations of men, as they that went before does to the earlier, those nearer the sinner’s day, but, of course, both expressions describe generations living after the wicked man. Others take the two phrases to mean, they of the West, and they of the East. In the one case the idea is that men’s horror of his memory and fate is eternal, lasting through all generations; in the other that it is universal,—both in the West and in the East. His day is the day of his downfall, Psa_37:13; Jer_50:27. Job had complained that he was made a “byword of the peoples” ch. Job_17:6; Bildad, with a singular hardness, rejoins, It is true, the deep moral instinct of mankind rises up against such a man.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) Shall be astonied at his day.—That is, his…
(20) Shall be astonied at his day.—That is, his doom, or destiny. He shall stand forth as a warning and monument to all.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They that come after him shall be astonied at…
They that come after him shall be astonied at his day; i.e. "at the time of his visitation" (comp. Psa_37:13, "The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming;" and Psa_137:7, "Remember the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem," i.e. the day of its overthrow). As they that went before were affrighted. His fate shall alarm equally his contemporaries and his successors, at possibly "the dwellers in the West and the dwellers in the East"
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:20 in the west . . . in the…
18:20 in the west . . . in the east: These phrases might refer to people from times past and times to come or to people from various places.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.