Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 27:20
Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
20. The figure of overwhelming waters is a natural one in the East and common in Scripture, Psa 18:16, Nah 1:8. Comp. the language of Eliphaz to Job, ch. Job 22:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Terrors-take hold on him as waters – That is, as suddenly and violently as angry floods; compare the notes at Job 18:14.
A tempest stealeth him away – He is suddenly cut off by the wrath of God. A tempest comes upon him as unexpectedly as a thief or robber comes at night. Death is often represented as coming upon man with the silence of a thief, or the sudden violence of a robber at midnight; see the note at Job 21:17; compare Mat 24:42-44.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. Terrors take hold on him as waters] They come upon him as an irresistible flood; and he is overwhelmed as by a tempest in the night, when darkness partly hides his danger, and deprives him of discerning the way to escape.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Terrors take hold on him, from the sense of his approaching death or judgment.
As waters; either,
1. In abundance, one terror after another. Or,
2. Violently and irresistibly, as a river breaking its banks, or a deluge of waters bears down and overwhelms all that is before it.
A tempest stealeth him away in the night; Gods wrath and judgment cometh upon him forcibly like a tempest, and withal secretly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. (Job 18:11;Job 22:11; Job 22:21).Like a sudden violent flood (Isa 8:7;Isa 8:8; Jer 47:2):conversely (Ps 32:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Terrors take hold on him as waters,…. The terrors of death, and of an awful judgment that is to come after it; finding himself dying, death is the king of terrors to him, dreading not only the awful stroke of death itself, but of what is to follow upon it; or rather these terrors are those that seize the wicked man after death; perceiving what a horrible condition he is in, the terrors of a guilty conscience lay hold on him, remembering his former sins with all the aggravating circumstances of them; the terrors of the law’s curses lighting upon him, and of the wrath and fury of the Almighty pouring out on him and surrounding him, and devils and damned spirits all about him. These will seize him “as waters”, like a flood of waters, denoting the abundance of them, “terror on every side”, a “Magormissabib”,
Jer 20:3, will he be, and coming with great rapidity, with an irresistible force, and without ceasing, rolling one after another in a sudden and surprising manner:
a tempest stealeth him away in the night; the tempest of divine wrath, from which there is no shelter but the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ; this comes like a thief, suddenly and unexpectedly, and steals the wicked man out of this world; or rather from the judgment seat, and carries him into the regions of darkness, of horror and black despair, where he is surrounded with the aforesaid terrors; this is said to be in the night, to make it the more shocking and terrible, see
Lu 12:19; and may have respect to that blackness that attends a tempest, and to that blackness of darkness reserved for wicked men, Jude 1:13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
20. As waters Suddenly, violently, continuously. “One terror after another, without intermission, as waters mix together in a flood.” Rabbi Levi. “That man, then,” says Plato, “who discovers in his own life much iniquity, and, like children, constantly starts in his sleep, is full of terrors, and lives on with scarce a hope of the future.” See, further, his “Republic,” b. 1, ch. 5.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 27:20. Terrors take hold on him, &c. See Pro 10:25. The meaning of the high metaphors in these verses is, that he dieth, as most wicked men do, in the utmost terror, tumult, and confusion.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 27:20 Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Ver. 20. Terrors take hold on him as waters ] Abundantly, suddenly, irresistibly; he is even swallowed up by them and overwhelmed; as he that is plunged into a deep pit full of water, or that hath the proud surges going over his soul, Psa 124:5 . The misery of it is, that these waters are fiery, and hell is a lake; but a burning lake, and such also as hath eternity to the bottom.
A tempest stealeth him away in the night
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Terrors: Job 15:21, Job 18:11, Job 22:16, Psa 18:4, Psa 42:7, Psa 69:14, Psa 69:15, Jon 2:3
a tempest: Job 20:23, Job 21:18, Exo 12:29, 2Ki 19:35, Dan 5:30
Reciprocal: Est 7:9 – Behold Job 20:25 – terrors Psa 83:15 – General Psa 90:5 – Thou Psa 103:16 – the wind Pro 14:32 – driven Isa 1:15 – when
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 27:20. Terrors take hold on him From the sense of approaching death or judgment. As waters As violently and irresistibly as a river breaking its banks, or a deluge of waters bears down all before it. A tempest stealeth, &c. Gods wrath cometh upon him like a tempest, and withal unexpectedly like a thief in the night.