Job 20:17

20:10-22 The miserable condition of the wicked man in this world is fully set forth. The lusts of the flesh are here called the sins of his youth. His hiding it and keeping it under his tongue, denotes concealment of his beloved lust, and delight therein. But He who knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it. The love of the world, and of the wealth of it, also is wickedness, and man sets his heart upon these. Also violence and injustice, these sins bring God's judgments upon nations and families. Observe the punishment of the wicked man for these things. Sin is turned into gall, than which nothing is more bitter; it will prove to him poison; so will all unlawful gains be. In his fulness he shall be in straits, through the anxieties of his own mind. To be led by the sanctifying grace of God to restore what was unjustly gotten, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy. But to be forced to restore by the horrors of a despairing conscience, as Judas was, has no benefit and comfort attending it.

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, Luke 16:24 ; though rather plenty of good things is here intended, see Isaiah 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 ri

(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.

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.

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. Exodus 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.

Verse 17. - 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 paradisiacal delights which the Orientals associated with water in all its forms, whether as פּלגות , or "rills derived from larger streams," or as כהרי , "rivers," or as כחלי , "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 and cattle, whence would be derived butter and honey. Compare the terms in which Canaan was described to the Israelites ( Exodus 3:8, 17 ; Exodus 13:5 ; Deuteronomy 26:9, 15 , etc.). Job 20:17

Not see, i.e. not enjoy, as that word is oft used as Psalm 106:5 Ecclesiastes 2:1 . The brooks of honey and butter; that abundant satisfaction and comfort, (oft signified by these or suchlike metaphors; as Psalm 36:8 46:4 Isaiah 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.

When I washed my steps with cream, And the rock poured me out rivers of oil. Job 29:6. Plowing with oxen is mentioned, Job 1:14. So also Job 31:38-40 : If my land cry out against me, And the furrows likewise complain; If I have eaten its fruits without payment, And extorted the living of its owners; Let thistles grow up instead of wheat, And noxious weeds instead of barley. Job 31:38-40. The cultivation of the vine and the olive, and the pressure of grapes and olives, is mentioned: He shall cast his unripe fruit as the vine, And shed his blossoms like the olive. Job 15:33. They reap their grain in the field (of others), continued...