Bible Commentary

Job 20:21

The Pulpit Commentary on Job 20:21

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

There shall none of his meat be left; rather, there was nothing left that he detoured not, or nothing remained over from his eating (Schultens). Scarcely intended literally, as Canon Cook supposes. Rather said in reference to the wicked man's persistent oppression and robbery of the poor, the needy, and the powerless (comp.

, ; and note our Lord's words, "Ye devour widows' houses," ). Therefore shall no man look for his goods. This is an impossible rendering. Translate, with Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes, and our Revisers, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

In other words, a Nemesis shall overtake him. For his oppression and cruelty he shall be visited by the Divine auger; a sudden end shall be made of his prosperity, and he shall fall into penury and misfortune.

Covert allusion is, no doubt, intended to Job's sudden loss of his extraordinary prosperity by the series of calamities so graphically portrayed in .

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