He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
Parallel Translations
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He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
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He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
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He shall not look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and curd.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Job 20:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 32:13-14 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 the flinty rock; butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
- Job 29:6 when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
- Luke 16:24 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! For I am in anguish in this flame.’
- Numbers 14:23 surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.
- 2 Samuel 17:29 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 hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.”
- 2 Kings 7:2 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 thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.”
- Psalms 36:8-9 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 is the spring of life. In your light we will see light.
- Psalms 81:16 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 He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good.
- Isaiah 7:22 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 that is left within the land.
- Isaiah 41:17 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 not forsake them.
- Jeremiah 17:6-8 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 uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
- Revelation 22:1 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 verse (16 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Though God give to all other abundance of his…
Though God give to all other abundance of his blessings, yet he shall have no part thereof.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the…
Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
Ver. 17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods] That is, that plenty and abundance of all good things that cometh in to the righteous, Velut confertim, certatim, et affatim, a confluence of all manner of comforts and contentments (Mercer). These the oppressor shall have none of; for being insatiable and vexed with the furies of an evil conscience, they enjoy not anything, though they abound with all things, being worse than tantalized; and if after his fall he seek to recruit himself, he shall never be able to effect it. He shall not see the rivers, &c. The Seventy, and others after them, render it by an elegant apostrophe, Ne, specter rivos, Let him never look after the rivers, &c., for it will never be. He may please himself in hope and expectation of a better condition, but God will surely cross him. For his hoped for riches he shall have poverty, for pleasure pain, for health sickness, for nourishment poison, for dignity disgrace, for the favour of God his wrath and hatred, for life destruction. A further account of the wicked man’s non-enjoyment of what he hath wrongfully wrested from others Zophar giveth us in the next verse.
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 Not see, i.e. not enjoy, as that word is…
Not see, i.e. not enjoy, as that word is oft used as Psa 106:5; Ecc 2:1.
The brooks of honey and butter; that abundant satisfaction and comfort, (oft signified by these or suchlike metaphors; as Psa 36:8; 46:4; Isa 7:15,22; 41:18) either which he promised to himself from that great estate which he had got by deceit and oppression, or which good men through God’s blessing may and commonly do enjoy.
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 He shall not see the rivers,.... Of water, or…
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 it, Luk 16:24; though rather plenty of good things is here intended, see Isa 48:18; as also the following expressions:
the floods, the brooks of honey and butter; or "cream"; which are hyperbolical expressions, denoting the great profusion and abundance of temporal blessings, which either the covetous rich man was ambitious of obtaining, and hoped to enjoy, seeking and promising great things to himself, which yet he should never attain unto; or else the sense is, though he had enjoyed such plenty, and been in such great prosperity as to have honey and butter, or all temporal good things, flowing about him like rivers, and floods, and brooks; yet he should "see them no more", so Broughton reads the words; and perhaps Zophar may have respect to the abundance Job once possessed, but should no more, and which is by himself expressed by such like metaphors, Job 29:6; yea, even spiritual and eternal good things may be designed, and the plenty of them, as they often are in Scripture, by wine, and milk, and honey; such as the means of grace, the word and ordinances, the blessings of grace dispensed and communicated through them; spiritual peace and joy, called the rivers of pleasure; the love of God, and the streams of it, which make glad his people; yea, eternal glory and happiness, signified by new wine in the kingdom of God, and by a river of water of life, and a tree of life by it, see Isa 55:1; which are what carnal men and hypocrites shall never see or enjoy; and whereas Zophar took Job to be such a man, he may have a principal view to him, and object this to the beatific vision of God, and the enjoyment of eternal happiness he promised himself, Job 19:26. Bar Tzemach observes, that these words are to be read by a transposition thus, "he shall not see rivers of water, floods of honey, and brooks of butter".
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 See - Not enjoy that abundant satisfaction and comfort,…
See - Not enjoy that abundant satisfaction and comfort, which good men through God's blessings enjoy.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 17. He shall not see the rivers] Mr.…
Verse 17. He shall not see the rivers] Mr. Good has the following judicious note on this passage: "Honey and butter are the common results of a rich, well-watered pasturage, offering a perpetual banquet of grass to kine, and of nectar to bees; and thus loading the possessor with the most luscious luxuries of pastoral life, peculiarly so before the discovery of the means of obtaining sugar. The expression appears to have been proverbial; and is certainly used here to denote a very high degree of temporal prosperity." See also Job 29:6. To the Hebrews such expressions were quite familiar. See Ex 3:8; Ex 13:5; Ex 33:3; 2Kg 18:32; De 31:20, and elsewhere.
The Greek and Roman writers abound in such images.
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Milk and honey were such delicacies with the ancients, that Pindar compares his song to them for its smoothness and sweetness: -
Χαιρε
Φιλος. Εγω τοδε τοι
Πεμπω μεμιγμενον μελι λευκῳ
Συν γαλακτι· κιρναμενα δ' εερς' αμφεπει πομ' αοιδιμον, Αιολισιν εν πνοαισιν αυλων.
PIND. Nem. iii., ver. 133.
"Hail, friend! to thee I tune my song;
For thee its mingled sweets prepare;
Mellifluous accents pour along;
Verse, pure as milk, to thee I bear;
On all thy actions falls the dew of praise;
Pierian draughts thy thirst of fame assuage,
And breathing flutes thy songs of triumph raise."
J. B. C.
Qui te, Pollio, amat, veniat, quo te quoque gaudet;
Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum.
VIRG. Ecl. iii., ver. 88.
"Who Pollio loves, and who his muse admires;
Let Pollio's fortune crown his full desires
Let myrrh, instead of thorn, his fences fill;
And showers of honey from his oaks distil!"
DRYDEN.
OVID, describing the golden age, employs the same image: -
Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant;
Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.
Metam. lib. i., ver. 3.
"Floods were with milk, and floods with nectar, fill'd;
And honey from the sweating oak distill'd."
DRYDEN.
HORACE employs a similar image in nearly the same words: -
Mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis;
Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.
Epod. xvi., ver. 46.
"From hollow oaks, where honey'd streams distil,
And bounds with noisy foot the pebbled rill."
FRANCIS.
Job employs the same metaphor, Job 29:6: -
When I washed my steps with butter,
And the rock poured out to me rivers of oil.
Isaiah, also, Isa 7:22, uses the same when describing the produce of a heifer and two ewes: -
From the plenty of milk that they shall produce,
He shall eat butter: butter and honey shall he eat,
Whosoever is left in the midst of the land.
And Joel, Joe 3:18: -
And it shall come to pass in that day,
The mountains shall drop down new wine,
And the hills shall flow with milk;
And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters.
These expressions denote fertility and abundance; and are often employed to point out the excellence of the promised land, which is frequently denominated a land flowing with milk and honey: and even the superior blessings of the Gospel are thus characterized, Isa 51:1.
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 20:17. He shall not see the rivers, the…
Job 20:17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods, &c. — “He shall not see them with any pleasure. The most delightful things of this world, and the greatest affluence and plenty of them, shall afford him no enjoyment.” — Dodd. Or, rather, he speaks metaphorically, and means, he shall not enjoy that abundant satisfaction and comfort, which he promised himself from his great riches, or which good men, through God’s blessing, commonly enjoy.
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 He shall not see the rivers - That is,…
He shall not see the rivers - That is, he shall not be permitted to enjoy plenty and prosperity. Rivers or rills of honey and butter are emblems of prosperity; compare Exo 3:17; Job 29:6. A land flowing with milk, honey, and butter, is, in the Scripture, the highest image of prosperity and happiness. The word rendered “rivers” (פלגה pelaggâh), means rather “rivulets small streams - or brooks,” such as were made by “dividing” a large stream (from פלג pâlag, to “cleave, divide”), and would properly be applied to canals made by separating a large stream, or dividing it into numerous watercourses for the purpose of irrigating lands. The word rendered “floods,” and in the margin, “streaming brooks” (נחלי נהרי nâhârēy nachalēy), means “the rivers of the valley,” or such as flow through a valley when it is swelled by the melting of snow, or by torrents of rain.
A flood, a rapid, swollen, full stream, would express the idea. These were ideas of beauty and fertility among the Orientals; and where butter and honey were represented as flowing in this manner in a land, it was the highest conception of plenty. The word rendered “honey” (דבשׁ debash) may, and commonly does, mean “honey;” but it also means the juice of the grape, boiled down to about the consistency of molasses, and used as an article of food. The Arabs make much use of this kind of food now, and in Syria, nearly two-thirds of the grapes are employed in preparing this article of food. It is called by the Arabs “Dibs,” which is the same as the Hebrew word used here. May not the word mean this in some of the places where it is rendered “honey” in the Scriptures? The word rendered “butter” (חמאה chem'âh) probably means, usually, “curdled milk.” See the notes at Isa 7:15. It is not certain that the word is ever used in the Old Testament to denote “butter.” The article which is used still by the Arabs is chiefly curdled milk, and probably this is referred to here. It will illustrate this passage to remark, that the inhabitants of Arabia, and of those who live in similar countries, have no idea of “butter,” as it exists among us, in a solid state. What they call “butter,” is in a fluid state, and is hence compared with flowing streams. An abundance of these articles was regarded as a high proof of prosperity, as they constitute a considerable part of the diet of Orientals. The same image, to denote plenty, is often used by the sacred writers, and by Classical poets; see Isa 7:22 :
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And it shall come to pass in that day
That a man shall keep alive a young cow and two sheep,
And it shall be that from the plenty of milk which they shall give,
He shall eat butter
For butter and honey shall every one eat,
Who is left alone in the midst of the land.
See also in Joe 3:18 :
And it shall come to pass in that day,
The mountains shall drop down new wine,
And the hills shall flow with milk,
And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with water.
Thus, also Ovid, Metam. iii.
Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant.
Compare Horace Epod. xvi. 41.
Mella cava manant ex ilice; montibus altis
Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.
From oaks pure honey flows, from lofty hills
Bound in light dance the murmuring rills.
Boscawen.
See also Euripides, Bacch. 142; and Theoc. Idyll. 5,124. Compare Rosenmuller’s Alte u. neue Morgenland on Exo 3:8, No. 194.
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 Butter. The impious may have a short-lived pleasure, but…
Butter. The impious may have a short-lived pleasure, but it will not give perfect satisfaction. The poets use similar expressions. (Calmet) Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum. (Virgil)
Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant. (Met. i.)
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 floods--literally, "stream of floods," plentiful streams flowing with milk,…
floods--literally, "stream of floods," plentiful streams flowing with milk, &c. (Job 29:6; Exo 3:17). Honey and butter are more fluid in the East than with us and are poured out from jars. These "rivers" or water brooks are in the sultry East emblems of prosperity.
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 Third strophe — The wicked had counted upon perennial…
Third strophe — The wicked had counted upon perennial resources of bliss — “rivers of honey and butter” — only to find himself stripped of all his ill-gotten good, and himself the defenceless prey of the victims of his own insatiable greed, Job_20:17-22.
17. Not see the rivers — See note Job_29:6. ראה with ב implies joy in beholding. To the Oriental a river has ever been an emblem of felicity. In the paradise of Mohammed “are rivers of incorruptible water, and rivers of milk, the taste whereof changeth not; and rivers of wine, pleasant unto those who drink; and rivers of clarified honey.” — KORAN, Sura 47. The butter was either cream, or simply curdled milk in a semi-liquid state.
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 17. the floods, the brooks of honey] The marg.…
17. the floods, the brooks of honey] The marg. the streaming brooks is unnecessary. The words “honey and butter” apply both to “floods” (streams) and brooks. The figure is common for fulness of blessings. Cf. Exo_3:8, “A land flowing with milk and honey.”
17–22. That long time of enjoyment which he promised himself shall never come; according to his insatiable lust and greed shall be his utter destitution at last.
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 (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 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the…
He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks. The wicked man shall suffer, not only positive pains, but what casuists call the peens damni, or "penalty of loss deprivation, in other words, of blessings which he would naturally have enjoyed but for his wickedness. Zophar here threatens him with the Joss of those paradisaical delights which the Orientals associated with water in all its forms, whether as twglP, or "rills derived from larger streams," or as yrhk, "rivers," or as yljk, "brooks" or "torrents," now strong and impetuous, now reduced to a mere thread These are said poetically to flow with honey and butter, not, of course, in any literal sense, such as Ovid may have meant, when, in describing the golden age, he said"Flumina jam lactis, jam fiumina nectaris ibant; ("Metaph.," 1:111.) but as fertilizing the land through which they ran, and so causing it to abound with bees anti cattle, whence would be derived butter and honey. Compare the terms in which Canaan was described to the Israelites. (Exo_3:8, 17 13:5 Deu_26:9, Deu_26:15, etc.)
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 General Information:
General Information:
Zophar continues speaking to Job.
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the streams, the torrents of honey and butter
"Streams" and "torrents" are metaphors that represent abundance. "Honey" and "butter" are metonyms that represent the good things that God gives people. AT: "the abundance of good things that God gives his people" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
the fruit of his labor
Normally "the fruit of his labor" simply refers to the results of his labor. In this case it refers to the things the wicked man had stolen. AT: "the things he had worked to get" or "the things he had stolen" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
will not be able to eat it
Here "to eat" the fruit of his labor represents enjoying the things he had stolen. AT: "will not be able to enjoy them" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
honey
labor
oppress
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 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.