Job 20:28

20:23-29 Zophar, having described the vexations which attend wicked practices, shows their ruin from God's wrath. There is no fence against this, but in Christ, who is the only Covert from the storm and tempest, Isa 32:2. Zophar concludes, This is the portion of a wicked man from God; it is allotted him. Never was any doctrine better explained, or worse applied, than this by Zophar, who intended to prove Job a hypocrite. Let us receive the good explanation, and make a better application, for warning to ourselves, to stand in awe and sin not. One view of Jesus, directed by the Holy Spirit, and by him suitably impressed upon our souls, will quell a thousand carnal reasonings about the suffering of the faithful.

The increase of his house shall depart,.... Either his children or his substance. Some interpret it, as Kimchi (h) observes, of the walls of his house, because of what follows, "they shall flow away", &c. as if he should say, the stones of his house shall fall down, and his habitation shall be destroyed, according to Micah 1:6 ; where a dilapidation is expressed by a flow, or pouring down of stones: and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath; in the day of the wrath of God upon him, which will come upon him like water split on the ground, of no more use and service to him; the Targum interprets it of oil and wine, which shall flow away and cease, and so Mr. Broughton renders it, "fruits for his house"; all desirable and useful ones, see Revelation 18:14. (h) Sepher Shorash. rad.

Verse 28. - The increase of his house shall depart . "The increase of his house" may be either his children and descendants; or his substance - that which he has accumulated. In the former case, the departure spoken of may be either death (see ver. 26), or carrying into captivity; in the latter, general rapine and destruction. And his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath . It seems to be necessary to supply some such nominative as "his goods," or "his treasure," צפוניו (see ver. 26). These shall "flow away," i.e. melt and disappear, "in the day of his wrath," i.e. the day when wrath comes upon him. Job 20:28

The increase of his house; either, 1. His posterity; or rather, 2. His estate, got by the labour, and employed for the use, of his family. Shall depart; shall be lost or taken away from him. See 2 Kings 20:17 . His goods shall flow away like waters, to wit, swiftly and strongly, and so as to return no more. The day of his wrath, i. e. of God’s wrath, when God shall come to execute judgment upon him.

The increase of his house shall depart - Septuagint, "Destruction shall bring his house to an end." The word rendered "depart" (יגל yı̂gel from גלה gâlâh), means, properly, "shall go into captivity." The sense is, that whatever he had laid up in his house would entirely disappear. His goods shall flow away - What he had gained would seem to flow away like water. In the day of his wrath - The wrath of God - for so the connection demands.

26 All darkness is reserved for his treasured things, A fire that is not blown upon devoureth him; It feedeth upon what is left in his tent. 27 The heavens reveal his iniquity, And the earth riseth up against him. 28 The produce of his house must vanish, Flowing away in the day of God's wrath. . . . . . . 29 This is the lot of the wicked man from Elohim, And the heritage decreed for him from God. As in Psalm 17:14 God's store of earthly goods for the children of men is called צפוּן (צפין), so here the stores laid up by man himself are called צפוּניו. Total darkness, which will finally destroy them, is decreed by God against these stores of the godless, which are brought together not as coming from the hand of God, but covetously, and regardless of Him. Instead of טמוּן it might also have been צפוּן (Job 15:20; Job 21:19; Job 24:1), and instead of לצפוּניו also לטמוּניו (Deuteronomy 33:19); but טמוּן is, as Job 40:13 shows, better suited to darkness (on account of the ט, this dull-toned muta, with which the word begins). כּל־חשׁך signifies sheer darkness, as in Psalm 39:6, כל־הבל, sheer nothingness; Psalm 45:14, כל־כבודה, sheer splendour; and perhaps Isaiah 4:5, כל־כבוד, sheer glory.

And the thought, expressed with somewhat of a play upon words, is, that to the θησαυρίζειν of the godless corresponds a θησαυρίζειν of God, the Judge (Romans 2:5; James 5:3): the one gathers up treasures, and the other nothing but darkness, to whom at an appointed season they shall be surrendered. The תּאכלהוּ which follows is regarded by Ges. as Piel instead of תּאכּלהוּ, but such a resolving of the characteristic sharpened syllable of Piel is unsupportable; by Hirz., Olsh. 250, b, and Pual instead of תּאכּלהוּ, but אכּל signifies to be eaten, not (so that it might be connected with an accusative of the obj.) to get to eat; by Ew., Hupf., as Kal for תּאכלהוּ, which is possible both from the letters and the matter (vid., on Psalm 94:20); but more correctly it is regarded as Poel, for such Poel forms from strong roots do occur, as שׁפט (vid., on Job 9:15), and that the Cholem of these forms can be shortened into Kametz-chatuph is seen from ודרשׁוּ, Psalm 109:10 (vid., Psalter in loc.). (Note: Such a contraction is also presented in the readings תּרצחוּ, Psalm 62:4; מלשׁני, Psalm 101:5; and ויּחלקם, 1 Chronicles 23:6; 1 Chronicles 24:3. All these forms are not resolved forms of Piel (Ges., Berth., Olsh. 248, a), but contracted forms of Poel with Kametz-chatuph instead of Cholem. תּהתלּוּ, Job 13:9, is not a resolved form of Piel, but a non-syncopated Hiphil.