Job 20:17 Komentář

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 preface is short, but hot (Job 20:2, Job 20:3). II. His discourse is long, and all upon one subject, the very same that Bildad was large upon (ch. 18), the certain misery of wicked people and the ruin that awaits them. 1. He asserts, in general, that the prosperity of a wicked person is short, and his ruin sure (Job 20:4-9). 2. He proves the misery of his condition by many instances - that he should have a diseased body, a troubled conscience, a ruined estate, a beggared family, an infamous name and that he himself should perish under the weight of divine wrath: all this is most curiously described here in lofty expressions and lively similitudes; and it often proves true in this world, and always in another, without repentance (v. 10-29). But the great mistake was, and (as bishop Patrick expresses it) all the flaw in his discourse (which was common to him with the rest), that he imagined God never varied from this method, and therefore Job was, without doubt, a very bad man, though it did not appear that he was, any other way than by his infelicity.

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 lived, Job 20:4; and the short enjoyment of their happiness is described by several elegant figures and similes, Job 20:6; such a wicked man being obliged, in his lifetime, to restore his ill gotten goods, and at death to lie down with the sins of his youth, Job 20:10; his sin in getting riches, the disquietude of his mind in retaining them, and his being forced to make restitution, are very beautifully expressed by the simile of a sweet morsel kept in the mouth, and turned to the gall of asps in the bowels, and then vomited up, Job 20:12; the disappointment he shall have, the indigent and strait circumstances he shall be brought into, and the restitution he shall be obliged to make for the oppression of the poor, and the uneasiness he shall feel in his own breast, are set forth in a very strong light, Job 20:17; and it is suggested, that not only the hand of wicked men should be upon him, but the wrath of God also, which should seize on him suddenly and secretly, and would be inevitable, he not being able to make his escape from it, and which would issue in the utter destruction of him and his in this world, and that to come, Job 20:23. And the chapter is, concluded with this observation, that such as before described is the appointed portion and heritage of a wicked man from God, Job 20:29

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".

“They will not rejoice on the division of the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.” These words mean that those rivers were divided on Mount Calvary, and the streams derived from the rivers signify the gifts of the Spirit communicated by the revelation of the Gospel.

Ver. 17. He shall not see the streamlets of the torrent river of honey and butter. 20. The Lord saith in the Gospel; He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [John 7, 38. 39.] Where the Evangelist subjoins, saying, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. And so 'the streamlets of the river' are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Charity is 'a streamlet of the river,' faith is 'a streamlet of the river,' hope is 'a streamlet of the river.' But because no hypocrite ever loves either God or his neighbour, when he makes the transitory glory of the world his aim, he does not see the streamlets of the river, in that he is not watered with the overflowing of charity. Whereas the hypocrite goes after present gains, he disregards future blessings, and not having faith, he sees not in the mind 'the streamlet of the river,' inasmuch as faith is the evidence of things not seen. [Heb. 11, 1] And while the hypocrite clings to the things that are seen, he makes light of those, which are not seen, therefore he does not see the 'streamlets of the river' in desire, in that he is taken up with visible things alone. And it is written, For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? [Rom. 8, 24] He then would have seen 'streamlets of the river' if he had shut his eyes to the glory of this world, and opened them to the love of the heavenly country. And observe that he does not say 'streams,' but 'streamlets.' For the 'streamlets of the river' may be taken for those spiritual gifts, which trickle in such fine streams from heavenly sources into the soul of him that loveth, that they can never be compassed by the mouth of the flesh. For it is often the case that the spirit of him that loves is filled with such a mighty gift of contemplation, that it has power to see what it has not power to utter. Now the 'torrent river' is the inundation of the Holy Spirit itself, which in exuberant outpouring is gathered in the soul of him in contemplation, when his mind is full beyond what he is able to comprehend. And it is necessary to be known, that when the grace of the Holy Spirit bathes us, it fills us with 'honey and butter' equally. For 'honey' falls from above, but 'butter' is drawn from the milk of animals, and so 'honey' is from the air, 'butter' from the flesh. But the Only-begotten Son of the Most High Father, while He is God above all things, was made Man one among all things. Who when he replenished us with the sweetness of His Divine Nature and the mystery of His Incarnation, satisfied us with 'honey and butter' at once. And so seeing that the Holy Spirit rejoices the soul It has filled, at once with the sweetness of His divinity and the belief of His Incarnation, these are described as 'the streamlets of the torrent river of honey and butter' together, in that they both refresh the soul with sweetness by the exalted knowledge of God, and anoint it with the mystery of the Benefit by the grace of the Incarnation. But whereas this hypocrite, being dissipated in outward regards, does not taste these interior gifts, he adjoins to what after punishments he is tending, in that it is added.

Then he continues with the punishment which is the privation of goods when he then says, "Let him not see the stream of the river flowing with butter and honey." Butter and honey are similar in that both fittingly describe what is sweet to the taste, but honey is produced by bees who collect it from flowers. Butter is produced from the labor of men who take it from the milk of domesticated animals. So honey can mean any enjoyable good whatsoever which comes without the industry of man, whereas butter means any enjoyable good which is produced from human endeavor. A torrent comes on someone immediately and unexpectedly. The river means abundance because of the great quantity of water. The streams mean the distributions of goods. Not everyone has every temporal or spiritual good, but some have the latter and others the former. According to the opinion of Sophar, it is necessary to admit that the sweetness of goods come to good men abundantly and unexpectedly, both from human work and from divine providence without human work but in an ordered distribution. The sinner, he asserts, is deprived of this distribution.

Against wine and strong drink. We should avoid contentions. The sluggard. The righteous man. Weights and measures. Tale-bearers. The wicked son. The wise king. The glory of young men. The beauty of old men. The benefit of correction.

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 Exo 3:8; Exo 13:5; Exo 33:3; Kg2 18:32; Deu 31:20, and elsewhere. The Greek and Roman writers abound in such images. 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.

REPLY OF ZOPHAR. (Job 20:1-29) Therefore--Rather, the more excited I feel by Job's speech, the more for that very reason shall my reply be supplied by my calm consideration. Literally, "Notwithstanding; my calm thoughts (as in Job 4:13) shall furnish my answer, because of the excitement (haste) within me" [UMBREIT].

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.

17 He shall not delight himself in streams, Like to rivers and brooks of honey and cream. 18 Giving back that for which he laboured, he shall not swallow it; He shall not rejoice according to the riches he hath gotten. 19 Because he cast down, let the destitute lie helpless; He shall not, in case he hath seized a house, finish building it. 20 Because he knew no rest in his craving, He shall not be able to rescue himself with what he most loveth. As poets sing of the aurea aetas of the paradise-like primeval age: Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant, (Note: Ovid, Metam. i. 112, comp. Virgil, Ecl. iv. 30: Et durae quercus sudabant roscida mella; and Horace, Epod. xvi. 47 Mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.) and as the land of promise is called in the words of Jehovah in the Thora, "a land flowing with milk and honey," the puffed-up prosperity to which the evil-doer has attained by injustice is likened to streams (פּלגּות, prop. dividings, and indeed perhaps of a country = districts, Jdg 5:15., or as here, of a fountain = streams) of rivers, of brooks (two gen. appositionis which are co-ordinate, of which Hupfeld thinks one must be crossed out; they, however, are not unpoetical, since, just as in Psa 78:9, the flow of words is suspended, Ew. 289, c) of honey and cream (comp. cream and oil, Job 29:6), if נהרי נחלי is not perhaps (which is more in accordance with the accentuation) intended as an explanatory permutative of בפלגות: he shall not feast himself upon streams, streamings of rivers of honey and cream (Dachselt); and by אל־ירא (seq. Beth, to fasten one's gaze upon anything = feast one's self upon it), the prospect of enjoying this prosperity, and indeed, since the moral judgment and feeling are concerned in the affirmation of the fact (אל, as Job 5:22; Psa 41:3; Pro 3:3, Pro 3:25), the privilege of this prospect, is denied. This thought, that the enjoyment aimed at and anticipated shall not follow the attainment of this height of prosperity, is reiterated in a twofold form in Job 20:18. Job 20:18 is not to be translated: He gives back that which he has gained without swallowing it down, which must have been ישׁיב; the syntactic relation is a different one: the Waw of ולא is not expressive of detail; the detailing is implied in the partic., which is made prominent as an antecedent, as if it were: because, or since, he gives out again that which he has acquired (ינע only here instead of יגיע, Job 10:3 and freq.), he has no pleasure in it, he shall or may not altogether swallow it down (Targ. incorrectly ולא־יגמר, after the Arabic blg, to penetrate, attain an object). The formation of the clause corresponds entirely with Job 20:18. All attempts at interpretation which connect כּחיל תּמוּרתו with משׁיב, Job 20:18, are to be objected to: (he gives it back again) as property of his restitution, i.e., property that is to be restored (Schlottm.), or the property of another (Hahn). Apart from the unsuitableness of the expression to the meaning found in it, it is contrary to the relative independence of the separate lines of the verse, which our poet almost always preserves, and is also opposed by the interposing of ולא יבלע. The explanation chosen by Schult., Oet., Umbr., Hirz., Renan, and others, after the Targ., is utterly impossible: as his possession, so his exchange (which is intended to mean: restitution, giving up); this, instead of כּחיל, must have been not merely כּחיל, but כּחילו. The designed relation of the members of the sentence is, without doubt, that כחיל תמורתו is a nearer defining of ולא יעלס, after the manner of an antecedent clause, and from which, that it may be emphatically introduced, it begins by means of Waw apod. (to which Schult. not unsuitably compares Jer 6:19; Kg1 15:13). The following explanation is very suitable: according to the power, i.e., entire fulness of his exchange, but not in the sense of "to the full amount of its value" (Carey, as Rosenm.), connected with משׁיב, but connected with what follows: "how great soever his exchange (gain), still he does not rejoice" (Ew.). But it is not probable that חיל here signifies power = a great quantity, where property and possessions are spoken of. The most natural rendering appears to me to be this: according to the relation of the property of his exchange (תמורה from מור, Syr. directly emere, cogn. מהר, מחר, and perhaps also מכר, here of exchange, barter, or even acquisition, as Job 15:31; comp. Job 28:17, of the means of exchange), i.e., of the property exchanged, bartered, gained by barter by him, he is not to enjoy, i.e., the rejoicing which might have been expected in connection with the greatness of the wealth he has amassed, departs from him. Jerome is not the only expositor who (as though the Hebrew tenses were subject to no rule, and might mean everything) translates Job 20:19, domum rapuit et non aedificvit eam (equivalent to quam non aedificaverat). Even Hupfeld translates thus, by taking ולא יבנהו as imperfect = והוּא לא בנהוּ; but he, of course, fails to furnish a grammatical proof for the possibility of inferring a plusquamperfectum sense. It might sooner be explained: instead of building it (Lit. Centralblatt, 1853, Nr. 24). But according to the syntax, Job 20:19 must be an antecedent clause: because he crushed, left (therefore: crushed by himself) the destitute alone; (Note: The Targ. translates: because he brought to ruin the business of the poor (עזב after עזּבון in Ezekiel); and Parchon: because he brought to ruin the courts of the poor (after the Mishna-word מעזיבה, a paved floor); but עזב, according to the Masora on Isa 58:2 (comp. Kimchi, Michlol, p. 35), is to be read עזב as a verb.) and Job 20:19 the conclusion: he has pillaged a house, and will not build it, i.e., in case he has plundered a house, he will not build it up. For בּית גּזל, according to the accents, which are here correct, is not to be translated: domus, quam rapuit, but hypothetically: si (ἐὰν) domum rapuit, to which ybnhw wl' is connected by Waw apod. (comp. Job 7:21); and בּנה signifies here, as frequently, not: to build, but: to build round, build additions to, continue building (comp. Ch2 11:5-6; Psa 89:3, Psa 89:5). In Job 20:20 similar periodizing occurs: because he knew not שׁלו (neutral = שׁלוה, Pro 17:1; Ew. 293, c), contentment, rest, and sufficiency (comp. Isa 59:8, לא ידע שׁלום) in his belly, i.e., his craving, which swallows up everything: he will not be able to deliver himself (מלּט like פּלּט, Job 23:7, as intensive of Kal: to escape, or also = מלּט נפשׁו, which Amo 2:15 seems to favour) with (בּ as Job 19:20) his dearest treasure (thus e.g., Ewald), or: he will not be able to rescue his dearest object, prop. not to effect a rescue with his dearest object, the obj., as Job 16:4, Job 16:10; Job 31:12, conceived of as the instrument (vid., e.g., Schlottm.). The former explanation is more natural and simple. חמוּד, that which is exceedingly desired (Psa 39:12), of health and pleasantness; Isa 44:9, of idols, as the cherished objects of their worshippers), is the dearest and most precious thing to which the sinner clung with all his soul, not, as Bttch. thinks, the soul itself. (Note: Hupfeld interprets: non fruitur securus ventre suo h. e. cibo quo venter potitus erat et deliciis quas non salvas retinebit (or also Job 20:20 as a clause by itself: cum deliciis suis non evadet), but without any proof that ידע בּ can signify frui, and בטן metonymically food, whereas the assertion that שׁלו cannot be equivalent to שׁלו, and cannot be used of rest with reference to the desire, is unfounded. In Hebrew the neuter adj. can be used as a substantive, just as in Greek, e.g., τὸ ἀσφαλές, security, τὸ εὐτυχές, success (comp. e.g., the combination בתמים ואמת), and שלח signifies release and ease (Arab. followed by ‛n), without distinction of what disturbs, be it danger, or pain, or any kind of emotion whatever.)