Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 20:6

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

6. his excellency ] Or, his height, or rising up (Psa 89:9); cf. Isa 14:13-15, Obad. Job 20:4.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens – Though he attain to the highest pitch of honor and prosperity. The Septuagint renders this, Though his gifts should go up to heaven, and his sacrifice should touch the clouds; a sentence conveying a true and a beautiful idea, but which is not a translation of the Hebrew. The phrases, to go up to heaven, and to touch the clouds, often occur to denote anything that is greatly exalted, or that is very high. Thus, in Virgil,

It clamor coelo.

So Horace,

Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.

And again,

Attingit solium Joyis.

Compare Gen 11:4, Let us build us a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. In Homer the expression not unfrequently occurs, tou gar kleos ouranon hikei. In Seneca (Thyest. Act. v. ver. 1, 2,4,) similar expressions occur:

Aequalis astris gradior, et cunctos super

Altum superbo vertice attingens polum,

Dimitto superos: summa votorum attigi.

The language of Zophar would also well express the condition of many a hypocrite whose piety seems to be of the most exalted character, and who appears to have made most eminent attainments in religion. Such a man may seem to be a man of uncommon excellence. He may attract attention as having extraordinary sanctity. He may seem to have a remarkable spirit of prayer, and yet all may be false and hollow. Men who design to be hypocrites, aim usually to be eminent hypocrites; they who have true piety often, alas, aim at a much lower standard. A hypocrite cannot keep himself in countenance, or accomplish his purpose of imposing on the world, without the appearance of extraordinary devotedness to God; many a sincere believer is satisfied with much less of the appearance of religion. He is sincere and honest. He is conscious of true piety, and he attempts to impose on none. At the same time he makes no attempt scarcely to be what the hypocrite wishes to appear to be; and hence, the man that shall appear to be the most eminently devoted to God may be a hypocrite – yet usually not long. His zeal dies away, or he is suffered to fall into open sin, and to show that he had no true religion at heart.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens] Probably referring to the original state of Adam, of whose fall he appears to have spoken, Job 20:4. He was created in the image of God; but by his sin against his Maker he fell into wretchedness, misery, death, and destruction.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Though he be advanced to great dignity and authority in the world.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. (Isa 14:13;Oba 1:3; Oba 1:4).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,…. Though, in worldly grandeur and glory, he should arrive to such a pitch as the Assyrian monarch was ambitious of, as to ascend into heaven, exalt his throne above the stars of God, and be like the Most High; or be comparable to such a tree, by which the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is expressed, the height whereof reached unto heaven,

Isa 14:12;

and his head reach unto the clouds; being lifted up with pride, because of his greatness, and looking with contempt and scorn on others; the Septuagint version is, “if his gifts ascend up to heaven”, c. which well agrees with an hypocrite possessed of great gifts, and proud of them as Capernaum was highly favoured with external things, as the presence of Christ, his ministry and miracles, and so said to be exalted unto heaven, yet, because of its impenitence and unbelief, should be brought down to hell, Mt 11:23.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

6 If his aspiration riseth to the heavens,

And he causeth his head to touch the clouds:

7 Like his dung he perisheth for ever;

Those who see him say: Where is he?

8 As a dream he flieth away, and they cannot find him;

And he is scared away as a vision of the night.

9 The eye hath seen him, and never again,

And his place beholdeth him no more.

10 His children must appease the poor,

And his hands give up his wealth.

11 His bones were full of youthful vigour;

Now it is laid down with him in the dust.

If the exaltation of the evil-doer rises to heaven, and he causes his head to reach to the clouds, i.e., to touch the clouds, he notwithstanding perishes like his own dung. We are here reminded of what Obadiah, Job 20:4, says of Edom, and Isaiah, Isa 14:13-15, says of the king of Babylon. is equivalent to , like , Psa 89:10 = ; the first weak radical is cast away, as in = , fraudulentus , machinator , Isa 32:5, and according to Olsh. in = , 2Sa 19:33. is to be understood as causative (at least this is the most natural) in the same manner as in Isa 25:12, and freq. It is unnecessary, with Ew., Hirz., and Hlgst., after Schultens, to transl. , Job 20:7, according to the Arab. jlal (whence the name Gell-ed-dn): secundum majestatem suam , or with Reiske to read , in magnificentia sua , and it is very hazardous, since the Hebrew has not the meaning of Arab. jll , illustrem esse . Even Schultens, in his Commentary, has retracted the explanation commended in his Animadv., and maintained the correctness of the translation, sicut stercus suum (Jer. sicut sterquilinium ), which is also favoured by the similar figurative words in 1Ki 14:10: as one burneth up (not: brushes away) dung ( ), probably cow-dung as fuel, until it is completely gone. (or with an audible Shev) may be derived from , but the analogy of favours the primary form (Ew. 255, b); on no account is it . The word is not low, as Eze 4:12, comp. Zep 1:17, shows, and the figure, though revolting, is still very expressive; and how the fulfilment is to be thought of may be seen from an example from 2Ki 9:37, according to which, “as dung upon the face of the field shall it be, so that they cannot say: this is Jezebel.”

(Note: In Arabic, gille ( ) and gelle ( ) is the usual and preferred fuel (hence used as synon. of hhattab) formed of the dung of cows, and not indeed yoke-oxen ( baqar ‘ammle), because they have more solid fodder, which produces no material for the gelle, but from cattle that pasture in the open fields ( baqar bat.tle), which are almost entirely milking cows. This dung is collected by women and children in the spring from the pastures as perfectly dry cakes, which have the green colour of the grass. Every husbandman knows that this kind of dung – the product of a rapid, one might say merely half, digestion, even when fresh, but especially when dry – is perfectly free from smell. What is collected is brought in baskets to the forming or pressing place ( mattba’a, ), where it is crumbled, then with water made into a thick mass, and, having been mixed with chopped straw, is formed by the women with the hand into round cakes, about a span across, and three fingers thick. They resemble the tanners’ tan-cakes, only they are not square. Since this compound has the form of a loaf it is called qurss (which also signifies a loaf of bread); and since a definite form is given to it by the hand, it is called ttabu’ ( ), collective ttbbi’, which ( ), Eze 4:15, resembles in meaning; for ssaf’, (cogn. ssafhh, ), signifies to beat anything with the palm of the hand. First spread out, then later on piled up, the gelle lies the whole summer in the mattba’a. The domes ( qubeb) are not formed until a month before the rainy season, i.e., a circular structure is built up of the cakes skilfully placed one upon another like bricks; it is made from six to eight yards high, gradually narrowed and finished with a vaulted dome, whence this structure has its name, qubbe ( ). Below it measures about eight or ten paces, it is always hollow, and is filled from beneath by means of an opening which serves as a door. The outside of the qubbe is plastered over with a thick solution of dung; and this coating, when once dried in the sun, entirely protects the building, which is both storehouse and store, against the winter rains. When they begin to use the fuel, they take from the inside first by means of the doorway, and afterwards (by which time the heavy rains are over) they use up the building itself, removing the upper part first by means of a ladder. By the summer the qubbe has disappeared. Many large households have three or four of these stores. Where walled-in courts are spacious, as is generally the case, they stand within; where not, outside. The communities bordering on the desert, and exposed to attacks from the Arabs, place them close round their villages, which gives them a peculiar appearance. When attacked, the herds are driven behind these buildings, and the peasants make their appearance between them with their javelins. Seetzen reckons the gelle among the seven characteristics of the district of Haurn ( Basan).

It appears that Eze 4:12. – where the prophet is allowed the usual cow-dung, the flame of which has no smell whatever, and its ashes, which smoulder for a long time, are as clean as wood ashes, instead of the cakes ( ) of human dung – is to be explained according to this custom. My fellow-travellers have frequently roasted mushrooms ( futtr) and truffles ( faq’, ) in the early spring in the glowing ashes of the gelle. On the other hand, it would be an error to infer from this passage that the Semites made use of human dung for fuel; the Semites (including the Nomads) are the most scrupulously particular people respecting cleanliness. According to the above, Zep 1:17 may be explained: “their flesh shall become like dung,” i.e., be burned or destroyed like dung. And also we understand the above passage in the book of Job, “as his heap of dung-cakes shall he be consumed away,” exactly like 1Ki 14:10: “I will burn (take away) the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man burneth the dung-cakes until they are consumed,” The suff. in refers to the habitation of the evil-doer, above whose grovelling joy the high dome of the dung-cakes rises, which, before one becomes aware of it, has disappeared; and throughout the description of the sudden destruction of the evil-doer, 1Ki 14:8, 1Ki 14:9, the reader must keep the figure of this dome and its disappearing before his mind. If it be objected that by such a rendering would be expected, 1Ki 14:10 shows that ( ) was also used as a collective, and the Arabic gelle is never used in any other way, which is the more remarkable, as one from the first regards its termination as the “Arab. t of unity.” My attendants on my journey from Damascus (where there is no gelle, and consequently the word is not used) always took it so, and formed the plural gellt and the collective gilel, and were always laughed at and corrected: say Arab. aqrts jllt or tbb’ jllt! – Wetzst.)

The continuation here, Job 20:7, is just the same: they who saw him ( partic. of what is past, Ges. 134, 1) say: where is he? As a dream he flieth away, so that he is not found, and is scared away ( Hoph., not Kal) as a vision of the night ( everywhere in the book of Job instead of , from which it perhaps differs, as visum from visio ), which one banishes on waking as a trick of his fancy (comp. Psa 73:20; Isa 29:7.). Eyes looked upon him ( only in the book of Job in this signification of a fixed scorching look, cogn. , adurere , as is manifest from Son 1:6), and do it no more; and his place ( construed as fem., as Gen 18:24; 2Sa 17:12, Cheth.) shall not henceforth regard him ( , especially frequent in the book of Job, prop. to go about, cogn. , then to look about one). The futt. here everywhere describe what shall meet the evil-doer. Therefore Ewald’s transl., “his fists smote down the weak,” cannot be received. Moreover, , which must then be read instead of , does not occur elsewhere in this athletic signification; and it is quite unnecessary to derive from a = (to crush, to hurl to the ground), or to change it to (Schnurrer) or (Olsh.); for although the thought, filios ejus vexabunt egeni (lxx according to the reading , and Targ. according to the reading ), is not unsuitable for Job 20:10, a sense more natural in connection with the position of bnyw, and still more pleasing, is gained if is taken in the usual signification: to conciliate, appease, as the Targ. according to the reading (Peschito-word for ), and Ges., Vaih., Schlottm., and others, after Aben-Ezra, Ralbag, Merc.: filii ejus placabunt tenues, quos scilicet eorum pater diripuerat, vel eo inopiae adigentur, ut pauperibus sese adjungere et ab illis inire gratiam cognantur. Its retributive relation to Job 20:19 is also retained by this rendering. The children of the unfeeling oppressor of the poor will be obliged, when the tyrant is dead, to conciliate the destitute; and his hands, by means of his children, will be obliged to give back his property, i.e., to those whom his covetousness had brought to beggary ( , exertion, strength, Job 18:7, then as hown, and synon. , wealth, prob. from the radical meaning to breathe, which is differently applied in the Arabic aun , rest, and haun , lightness). Carey thinks that the description is retrospective: even he himself, in his lifetime, which, however, does not commend itself, since here it is throughout the deceased who is spoken of. As in Job 20:9, so now in Job 20:11 also, perf. and fut. interchange, the former of the past, the latter of the future. Jerome, by an amalgamation of two distinct radical significations, translates: ossa ejus implebuntur (it should be impleta erant ) vitiis adolescentiae ejus , which is to be rejected, because , Psa 90:8, is indeed intended of secret sin, but signifies generally that which is secret (veiled). On the contrary, , Job 33:25, certainly signifies adolescentia (Arab. gulumat ), and is accordingly, after lxx, Targ., and Syr., to be translated: his bones were full of youthful vigour. In Job 20:11, , as Job 14:19, can refer to the purely plural , but the predicate belonging to it would then be plur. in Job 20:11, and sing. in Job 20:11; on which account the reference to , which is in itself far more suitable, is to be preferred (Hirz., Schlottm.): his youthful vigour, on which he relied, lies with him in the dust (of the grave).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

First strophe expands the aphorism just announced, (Job 20:4-5,) Like a lofty tree, he may mount up to heaven, yet with ignominy, and, suddenly, shall he perish, and his wealth be swept away with him, (Job 20:6-11.)

6. Excellency In the sense of height or exaltation.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Zophar Pictures the End of the Ungodly

v. 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, that is, his ambitious plans, his exaltation in rank and power, and his head reach unto the clouds, the ungodly apparently gaining all that his heart desires;

v. 7. yet he shall perish forever like his own dung, spurned, falling into decay, and forgotten; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He will have disappeared so utterly and quickly that his vanishing will occasion surprise.

v. 8. He shall fly away as a dream and shall not be found, just as fleeting, just as perishable; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night, scared away like a phantom before God’s mighty intervention.

v. 9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more, even a careful scanning would yield no results, since God’s removal of the wicked would not leave a trace behind; neither shall his place any more behold him.

v. 10. His children shall seek to please the poor, that is, they will be obliged to do that by God’s judgment, God will compel them to pay out to them, and his hands shall restore their goods, through his children, who would be under compulsion to give back the wealth, the money, which he had taken from the poor by his wicked exactions.

v. 11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth, they were indeed full of the vigor of youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust, all the strength and vigor of his body will be laid in the grave.

v. 12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, holding evil in his mouth like a sweet-tasting morsel,

v. 13. though he spare it and forsake it not, sparing it to prolong his enjoyment of it, but keep it still within his mouth, retaining it against his palate, persisting in the lustful enjoyment of his wickedness,

v. 14. yet his meat in his bowels is turned, the food of wickedness which he finally swallows, it is the gall of asps within him, the venom of serpents in his intestines.

v. 15. He hath swallowed down riches, all the possessions which he gained by his wicked grasping, and he shall vomit them up again, unable to retain what he had so eagerly appropriated; God shall cast them out of his belly, administering an emetic to him, forcing him to disgorge his ill-gotten wealth.

v. 16. He shall suck the poison of asps, this will turn out to be the effect upon him; the viper’s tongue shall slay him, his punishment will come upon him as quickly as the striking of one of the very venomous serpents of the Arabian desert, whose sting is almost immediately fatal.

v. 17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter, the wicked would get no opportunity to delight in, to enjoy, brooks, creeks, rivers of honey and cream, he would be given no opportunity to enjoy his prosperity.

v. 18. That which he labored for shall he restore, being obliged to give it back to those from whom he has wrested it, and shall not swallow it down, not enjoy it; according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein, that is, in the same ratio as he heaped up his property by forbidden means his enjoyment in it would be diminished, he must lack the enjoyment which he had promised himself in them.

v. 19. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor, first crushed and then abandoned the defenseless, because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not, not being able to fit out and to arrange the houses which he gained by unjust means,

v. 20. surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, rest in the seat of his gluttony and avarice, he shall not save of that which he desired, literally, “with his most valued treasure he shall not escape. ” The allusion is probably to the fact that Job had been stripped of all he had.

v. 21. There shall none of his meat be left, literally, “there is nothing remaining to his food,” that is, nothing escaped his greediness ; therefore shall no man look for his goods, his ill-gotten prosperity will not endure.

v. 22. In the fullness of his sufficiency, while he has more than he needs for his actual wants, while he is surfeited with good things, he shall be in straits, poverty and distress will take hold on him; every hand of the wicked shall come upon him, the wretched people who were abused by him will inflict vengeance on him for the violence which they had suffered.

v. 23. When he is about to fill his belly, or, “That it may serve for the filling of his belly,” that for once the wicked may have enough and more than enough, God shall cast the fury of His wrath upon him, as it glows with a white heat, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating, with his food, so that he consumes the fire of God’s wrath with every meal.

v. 24. He shall flee from the iron weapon, while the wicked flees from the iron armor, and the bow of steel shall strike him through, the arrow from a brass bow will pierce him.

v. 25. It is drawn and cometh out of the body, the wicked himself drawing the arrow of God out of his body, in order to save his life, if possible; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall, for he himself removes the gleaming steel; terrors are upon him, as he realizes that his doom is upon him.

v. 26. All darkness shall be hid in his secret places, is saved up to strike that which he has hoarded, that is, every kind of calamity will descend upon the precious things which he fondly believed to be safe; a fire not blown shall consume him, that is, such a fire as requires no human agency to keep it alive, a supernatural fire; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle, the fire of God devouring that which still remains after former calamities have passed by.

v. 27. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity, they do so at all times, God Himself witnessing against him; and the earth shall rise up against him, all creation testifying the fact that he merits destruction.

v. 28. The increase of his house shall depart, all that he has garnered, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath, when the divine wrath will descend upon him.

v. 29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, that which is assigned to him, what he must finally expect, and the heritage appointed unto him by God. In the end the wicked has nothing but misery and wretchedness for his portion. In the entire discourse it is evident that Zophar has Job in mind and wants him to apply the statements to himself. The sneering insinuations in similar cases are intended to cut the victim to the quick.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Job 20:6. Though his excellency His great honour; the Syriac. His pride. Houbigant.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Job 20:6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

Ver. 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens ] Though he conceit himself, and would have others hold him to be, more than a man, and to accord him divine honour. If his pride ascend even up to heaven, so the Vulgate rendereth it. If his gifts ascend up to heaven, so the Septuagint: and indeed hypocrites are ever lifted up with their gifts, as some Corinthians were with their waxen wings, 1Co 8:1 , being enriched in all utterance and knowledge, and coming behind others in no gift, 1Co 1:7 , yet were they babes at best, and carnal, walking as men, 1Co 3:2-3 ; their religion was more in notion than in motion; they had the spiritual rickets, which, having grown big in the head, &c.; as the moon, they increased in light, but not in heat. In which respect, also, and for her external privileges, Capernaum is said to be lifted up to heaven, Mat 11:23 ; and the temporary, to taste of the heavenly gift, to partake of the powers of the world to come, Heb 6:4-5 .

And his head reach unto the clouds ] Aequalis astris gradior, saith he in the poet (Sen. in Thyest.), and Bibulus in Coelo est, saith the orator (Cic. ad Attic.). The heathen rhetoric is but dull stuff to that in this Book; and indeed in this one chapter. A hypocrite’s head is oft above the clouds of heaven when his heart is beneath the clods of earth; like the eagle, which, when he soareth highest of all, even out of sight almost, hath his eye all the while upon his prey below. Or like the apricot tree, which shoots up and leans upon the wall, but is fast rooted in the earth. This whole allusion may be unto a tree, like that of Nebuchadnezzar, whose height was great, and reached unto heaven, Dan 4:10-11 ; Dan 4:22 . Or that of the Amorite, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks, Amo 2:9 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 20:6-11

Job 20:6-11

MORE OF ZOPHAR’S NONSENSE ABOUT THE WICKED

“Though his height mount up to the heavens,

And his head reach unto the clouds;

Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung:

They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:

Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

The eye which saw him shall see him no more;

Neither shall his place any more behold him.

His children shall seek the favor of the poor,

And his hands shall give back his wealth.

His bones are full of his youth,

But it shall lie down with him in the dust.”

“Though his height mount up to heaven” (Job 20:6). It is pride which Zophar mentioned here. “His words against pride are not altogether false; “It is his application of them to Job that was sinful.” It is the wickedness of Zophar’s view that the present world is “all there is,” and that it is “all there’s ever going to be” that marks him as an agent of the devil here.

“His children shall seek the favor of the poor” (Job 20:10), etc. “This picture of destitution may include the thought of poetic justice: his children will have to beg from the poor who begged in vain from their father.” This view, it would seem to this writer, is a little far-fetched; but a number of scholars have suggested it.

E.M. Zerr:

Job 20:6-7. The shameful humiliation of the man who was proud of his apparent successes is the subject of this paragraph.

Job 20:8-9. These figures of speech describe the final downfall of the man who attains greatness in an unrighteous manner. He will become practically invisible because even the place he once occupied will be vacant.

Job 20:10. According to the translation in the margin of the Bible this verse means the children will become victims of other people. That is correct, for it was to be a condition unfavorable to this evil man.

Job 20:11. In this place Zophar even intimated that Job was being punished for sins committed in the days of his youth.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

his excellency: Gen 11:4, Isa 14:13, Isa 14:14, Dan 4:11, Dan 4:22, Amo 9:2, Oba 1:3, Oba 1:4, Mat 11:23

clouds: Heb. cloud

Reciprocal: Psa 52:5 – pluck

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 20:6-9. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens Though he be advanced to great dignity and authority in the world. He shall perish like his own dung Which men cast away with contempt and abhorrence. They who have seen him With admiration at his felicity; shall say, Where is he? He is nowhere to be found; he is utterly gone and lost. He shall fly away as a dream Which, for the present, affects the fancy, but hath nothing solid or permanent in it, for as soon as a man awakes all vanishes, and the remembrance of it is quickly lost. Neither shall his place any more behold him That is, it shall not acknowledge or contain him. A figure called prosopopia, as Job 7:10. Or, neither shall it (that is, the eye, last mentioned) behold him any more in his place.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

20:6 Though {b} his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

(b) His purpose is to prove Job to be a wicked man, and a hypocrite, because God punished him, and changed his prosperity into adversity.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

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