Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 20:7

[Yet] he shall perish forever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where [is] he?

7. like his own dung ] Zophar is not the most refined of the three, cf. 2Ki 9:37. On the last words of the verse cf. ch. Job 14:10.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 7. He shall perish for ever] He is dust, and shall return to the dust from which he was taken. Zophar here hints his disbelief in that doctrine, the resurrection of the body, which Job had so solemnly asserted in the preceding chapter. Or he might have been like some in the present day, who believe that the wicked shall be annihilated, and the bodies of the righteous only be raised from the dead; but I know of no scripture by which such a doctrine is confirmed.

Like his own dung] His reputation shall be abominable, and his putrid carcass shall resemble his own excrement. A speech that partakes as much of the malevolence as of the asperity of Zophar’s spirit.

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

Like his own dung; which men cast away with contempt and abhorrency. Compare 1Ki 14:10; 2Ki 9:37.

They which have seen him, with admiration at his felicity.

Where is he? i.e. he is no where to be found; he is utterly lost and gone.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. dungin contrast to thehaughtiness of the sinner (Job20:6); this strong term expresses disgust and the lowestdegradation (Psa 83:10; 1Ki 14:10).

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

[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung,…. Not only in this world, but in the world to come, both in his outward substance here, and in his body in the grave, and in his soul to all eternity, and that in the most shameful and disgraceful manner; he shall perish in his own corruption, and like his own dung inevitably, which is never returned to its place again: dead bodies were reckoned by the ancients as dung, and the carcasses of men are rather to be cast out than dung i; and the Arabians used, to bury in dunghills even their kings k; to which some l think the allusion is:

they which have seen him shall say, where [is] he? such as formerly gazed at him, in his prosperity, with wonder and amazement at his grandeur and greatness, now being removed from his outward splendour, or from the world, by death, ask where he is, not being able to see him in his former lustre, nor in the land of the living; see Job 14:10.

i Heraclitus apud Strabo. Geograph. l. 16. p. 539. k Strabo, ib. l Pineda in loc.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

7. Like his own dung Hirtzel renders the first clause: “According to his greatness so shall he perish forever.” So that “his destruction is the greater even as he himself is greater,” (Ewald,) which is properly discarded by Dillmann as inconsistent with the Hebrew use of words. In order to relieve the harshness of the figure, Wetzstein tells as that in the Hauran and Arabia the dung of cows is gathered by women and children for fuel. It is mixed with water and chopped straw, pressed into the shape of cakes, which are piled up in a circular form, and used as a kind of storehouse until needed for the fire. The flame is without odour, and the ashes pure as our own wood ashes. Delitzsch and Umbreit read as in the Authorized Version. The figure expresses the utmost contempt for Job, his immortality, and his future vision of God, and, in itself, would not be exceptionable to Oriental ears. 2Ki 9:37; Eze 4:12; Zep 1:17.

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

Job 20:7 [Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where [is] he?

Ver. 7. Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung ] Than the which nothing is more filthy and detestable. See this exemplified in Herod, Haman, Boniface VIII, bloody Bonner buried in a muck hill, &c. The word rendered dung hath its denomination from rolling, because it is rolled out of doors, and swept out of sight. Many instances hereof might be given in the pristine and modern persecutors, punished with ignominious and disgraceful ends. Sisera and Jabin perished at Endor, and became as dung for the earth, Psa 83:10 . Jehoram died undesired, Julian the apostate abhorred. God hath for such a besom of destruction, Isa 14:23 .

They which have seen him shall say, Where is he? ] They which have seen him with wonder shall now see him with horror, when they see him at such an under, such an ebb, such a dead low water. See this exemplified in that proud Chaldean, Isa 14:4 ; Isa 14:12 ; Isa 14:16 .

Tam subito casu, quae valuere, ruunt.

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