He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.
He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
Parallel Translations
-
He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.
He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
-
He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
Show all 3 translations
-
He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his belly.
He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall slay him.
He shall not look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and curd.
Cross-references (20)
- Proverbs 23:8 (v15) The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.
- Matthew 27:3-4 (v15) Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief…
- Deuteronomy 32:13-14 (v17) He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of…
- Job 29:6 (v17) when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
- Luke 16:24 (v17) He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue!…
Show all 20 cross-references
- Acts 28:3-6 (v16) But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand.…
- Romans 3:13 (v16) “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”
- Numbers 14:23 (v17) surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.
- Deuteronomy 32:24 (v16) They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the…
- 2 Samuel 17:29 (v17) honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat; for they said, “The people are…
- 2 Kings 7:2 (v17) Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if Yahweh made windows in heaven, could this…
- Psalms 36:8-9 (v17) They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures. For with you…
- Psalms 81:16 (v17) But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”
- Isaiah 7:15 (v17) He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good.
- Isaiah 7:22 (v17) It shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter; for everyone will eat butter and honey…
- Isaiah 30:6 (v16) The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying…
- Isaiah 41:17 (v17) The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will…
- Jeremiah 17:6-8 (v17) For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an…
- Matthew 3:7 (v16) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to…
- Revelation 22:1 (v17) He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv16–17 He compareth evil gotten goods to the venom of…
He compareth evil gotten goods to the venom of Asps, which serpent is most dangerous: noting that Job’s great riches were not truly come by and therefore God did plague him justly for the same.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Job 20:15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he…
Job 20:15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
Ver. 15. He hath swallowed down riches] As wild beasts do their prey, as the greater fishes do the lesser, greedily, easily, suddenly, irrecoverably, as the fire swalloweth up the fuel, as the lean kine devoured the fat, and as the Pamphagus glutton doth his tidbits, his sweet morsels. This word, hath swallowed, showeth his infinite and insatiable desire of getting and gathering riches; and that by continual gaping after more, he loseth the pleasure of what he hath already, like as a dog at his master’s table swalloweth the whole meat he casteth him without any pleasure, gaping still for the next morsel. He knoweth no other language but that of the horse leech’s daughter, Give, give; or that of greedy Esau, returning from the field, as hungry as a hunter, Gen 25:30, Feed me, I pray thee, or let me swallow at once (like as camels are fed by casting gobbets into their mouth) that red, red, &c. Gold is no better than red earth, and cannot terminate man’s appetite, Ecc 5:10.
Read full note →
And he shall vomit them up again] Either by remorse and restitution in the mean time, or by despair and impenitent horror hereafter; he shall vomit them up, and together with them his vital blood and spirits; he shall bring up his very heart withal, as Judas did, together with those thirty pieces of silver, Mat 27:4, all his bowels gushing out, Act 1:18. He thought to have digested his ill gotten goods, as the ostrich doth iron; but, pelican-like, he is forced to cast them up again, קאת Pelicanus a vomitu. (See Plin. l. 10, c. 30.) The large fish that swallowed Jonah found him hard meat, and, for his own ease, was forced to regurgitate. Think the same of this wretched mammonist. The Septuagint interpret the text when they thus render it, Wealth unjustly gathered shall be vomited up again, and an angel shall hale it out of his mouth. ( Graeci eleganter tropo explicato.) An evil angel, say their interpreters; but the Hebrew verity referreth it to God, as an act of divine justice.
God shall cast them out of his belly] As by a writ of ejectment, or rather, as by a violent purgation, that shall work both ways. Jer 51:44, "I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth what he hath swallowed up"; viz. the wealth of the nations round about him. This God will rake out of his belly, so that a piece of his heart shall go with it. In the last destruction of Jerusalem some of the Jews had swallowed their gold, that the Roman soldiers might not have it; this was found out, and thereupon thousands of them were killed and ripped up for the gold that might be found in their stomachs and bowels. In like sort shall God deal with those covetous wretches, that have devoured the riches of iniquity; that have sucked in pestilential air, as Hos 8:7. {See Trapp on "Hos 8:7"}
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 On vv15–17 He shall vomit them up again, i.e. be forced…
He shall vomit them up again, i.e. be forced to restore them with great shame and torment, as gluttons sometimes do loathe, and with grief and pain cast up, that meat which they have eaten and swallowed down with much greediness and delight. If no man’s hand can reach him, God shall find him out, and punish him severely.
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 On vv15–17 He hath swallowed down riches,.... Not his own, but…
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 them; and when he has got them into his possession, thinks them as safe as the food in his belly, and never once dreams of refunding them, which yet he must do, as follows:
and he shall vomit them up again; that is, make restoration of them, not freely, but forcedly, with great reluctance, much pain of mind, and gripes of conscience:
Read full note →
God shall cast them out of his belly; he shall oblige him to cast them up again, by working upon his heart, making his mind uneasy, loading his conscience with guilt, so that he shall have no rest nor peace until he has done it; though they are as meat in his belly within him, they shall not remain with him; though they are in his house, in his coffers, or in his barns, they shall be fetched out from thence.
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 On vv15, 17 Vomit - Be forced to restore them. God, &c.…
Vomit - Be forced to restore them. God, &c. - If no man's hand can reach him, God shall find him out.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Verse 15. He shall vomit them up again] This…
Verse 15. He shall vomit them up again] This is also an allusion to an effect of most ordinary poisons; they occasion a nausea, and often excruciating vomiting; nature striving to eject what it knows, if retained, will be its bane.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15, 17 Job 20:15-16. He hath swallowed down riches — He…
Job 20:15-16. He hath swallowed down riches — He hath got possession of them, and thought them to be as much his own as the meat he had eaten. But he is deceived. He shall vomit them up again — Shall be compelled to restore them: his own conscience perhaps may make him so uneasy in the keeping of what he has gotten, that, for the quiet of his own mind, he shall make restitution, and that not with the pleasure of a virtue, but with the utmost reluctancy, like the pain produced by an emetic. God shall cast them out of his belly — If he do not himself voluntarily refund what he has violently taken away, God, by his providence, shall force him to do it, and bring it about, one way or other, that his ill-gotten goods shall return to their right owners. If man’s hand cannot reach him, God shall find him out. He shall suck the poison of asps — What he sucked so sweetly, and with so much pleasure, shall, in the issue, prove most ungrateful and destructive, as the poison, or head (for the Hebrew ראשׁ, rosh, signifies both, and the poison lies in the head) of asps would be to one that sucked it. Such is sin; such especially will all unlawful gains be. The fawning tongue will prove the viper’s tongue. All the charming graces that are thought to be in sin will turn, when the conscience is awakened, into so many raging furies.
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 On vv15–17 He hath swallowed down riches - He has “glutted”…
He hath swallowed down riches - He has “glutted” down riches - or gormandized them - or devoured them greedily. The Hebrew word בלע bela‛, means “to absorb, to devour with the idea of greediness.” It is descriptive of the voracity of a wild beast, and means here that he had devoured them eagerly, or voraciously.
And he shall vomit - As an epicure does that which he has drunk or swallowed with delight. “Noyes.” The idea is, that he shall lose that which he has acquired, and that it will be attended with loathing. All this is to a great extent true still, and may be applied to those who aim to accumulate wealth, and to lay up ill gotten gold. It will be ruinous to their peace; and the time will come when it will be looked on with inexpressible loathing. Zophar meant, undoubtedly, to apply this to Job, and to infer, that since it was a settled maxim that such would be the result of the ill-gotten gain of a wicked man, where a result like this “had” happened, that there must have been wickedness. How cutting and severe this must have been to Job can be easily conceived. The Septuagint renders this, “Out of his house let an angel drag 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 On vv16–17 Head. Hebrew, "venom." Septuagint, "the wrath of dragons." (Calmet)…
Head. Hebrew, "venom." Septuagint, "the wrath of dragons." (Calmet) --- Vipers. The same Hebrew term is elsewhere rendered basilisk, or asp. The precise import of such things is not easily ascertained. (Pineda) --- Tongue. The ancients thought that serpents communicated the venom by the tongue, or sting. Moderns think they do it rather by the teeth. (Calmet)
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 On vv15–17 He is forced to disgorge his ill-gotten wealth.
He is forced to disgorge his ill-gotten wealth.
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 On vv15–17 15. Riches — One of the “Forty-two Points of…
15. Riches — One of the “Forty-two Points of Instruction,” a small Tibetan work, delivered by Buddha, is, “The man who seeks riches is like a child that, with the sharp point of a knife, attempts to eat honey; ere he has time to relish the sweetness that has but touched his lips, nothing remains to him but the poignant pain of a cut in the tongue.”
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 On vv15–17 15. The same general figure of a delightful food…
15. The same general figure of a delightful food particularized. The ill-gotten riches which he amassed do not abide with him; the wealth that he swallowed up he must disgorge. The figure is perhaps that of a food which the stomach cannot retain.
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 On v17 (17) The brooks of honey and butter.—He uses language…
(17) The brooks of honey and butter.—He uses language which might lead one to suppose he was familiar with the promise of Canaan, except that, as the phrase is not precisely identical it may perhaps rather show a community of proverbial language, and that the land flowing with milk and honey may have been an expression in use, and not one original with the Pentateuch.
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 On vv15–17 He hath swallowed down riches and he shall vomit…
He hath swallowed down riches and he shall vomit them up again. The wicked man shall be made to disgorge his ill-gotten gains. Either fear, or remorse, or a judicial sentence will force him to make restitution (see ver. 10). God shall cast them out of his belly. Whatever is the immediate motive of the restitution: it will really be God"s doing. He will cause the fear, or the remorse, or bring about the judicial sentence.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 17 General Information:
General Information:
Zophar continues speaking to Job.
Read full note →
He swallows down riches ... cast them out of his stomach
Zophar speaks of gaining and losing wealth as if it were food that a person eats and vomits. AT: "The wicked person becomes very wealthy, but he loses his wealth like a person who vomits up his food. God causes him to lose it all" (See: Metaphor)
He swallows down riches
Possible meanings are that "swallows down riches" represents 1) accumulating riches and storing them selfishly. AT: "The wicked man gains much wealth and keeps it all for himself" or 2) accumulating riches in wicked ways. AT: "The wicked man steals many riches" (See: Metaphor)
God will cast them out of his stomach
Here "cast them out of his stomach" is a metonym for causing the man to vomit them. This is a metaphor for causing the man to lose his riches. (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
cast
throw
He will suck the poison of asps
Here "suck the poison of asps" represents doing evil things. Both are very dangerous. AT: "Doing evil things is like sucking the poison of asps" or "He will do evil things and endanger his life like a person who sucks the poison of asps" (See: Metaphor)
asps
poisonous snakes
the viper's tongue will kill him
The viper is a poisonous snake. Its tongue represents its poisonous bite. AT: "the viper's poisonous bite will kill him" or "the viper will bite him and he will die" (See: Metonymy)
the viper's tongue will kill him
The viper represents the man's wickedness. AT: "his wickedness will kill him like a viper's bite" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
God
serpent
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v17 20:17 The streams of olive oil and rivers of…
20:17 The streams of olive oil and rivers of milk and honey signify superabundant blessing (Exod 5:19; Deut 27:3; Joel 3:18).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.