Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 20:24
He shall flee from the iron weapon, [and] the bow of steel shall strike him through.
24. His inevitable destruction: seeking to escape one form of death he shall flee into another. The figure changes. The judgment of God is no more a rain from heaven, it is an attack on all hands of armed inexorable foes; cf. the same idea of inevitable destruction set forth under different figures, Amo 5:19. For bow of steel read bow of brass.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He shall flee from the iron weapon – The sword, or the spear. That is, he shall be exposed to attacks, and shall flee in cowardice and alarm. Bands of robbers shall come suddenly upon him, and he shall have no safety except in flight. Pref. Lee explains this as meaning, While he flees from the iron weapon, the brass bow shall pierre him through. Probably the expression is proverbial, like that in Latin, Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdin.
The bow of steel shall strike him through – That is, the arrow from the bow of steel shall strike him down. Bows and arrows were commonly used in hunting and in war. To a considerable extent they are still employed in Persia, though the use has been somewhat superseded by the gun. Bows were made of various materials. The first were, undoubtedly, of wood. They were inlaid with horn, or ivory, or were made in part of metal. Sometimes, it would seem that the whole bow was made of metal, though it is supposed that the metal bow was not in general use. The weight, if nothing else, would be an objection to it. The word which is here rendered steel ( nechushah), means properly brass or copper – but it is certain that brass or copper could never have been used to form the main part of the bow, as they are destitute of the elasticity which is necessary. Jerome renders it, et irruet in arcum aereum – he rushes on the brazen bow. So the Septuagint, toxon chalkeion. So the Chaldee, – the bow of brass. There is no certain proof that steel was then known – though iron is often mentioned. It is possible, however, that though the whole bow was not made of brass or copper, yet that such quantities of these metals were employed in constructing bows, that they might, without impropriety, be called bows of brass. The Oriental bow consists of three parts. The handle, or middle part – that on which the arrow rested – was straight, and might be made of wood, brass, copper, or any other strong substance. To this was affixed, at each end, pieces of horn, or of any other elastic substance, and, the string was applied to the ends of these horns. The straight piece might have been of brass, and so without impropriety it might be called a brass bow. It is not properly rendered steel at any rate, as the word used here is never employed to denote iron or steel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. He shall flee from the iron weapon] Or, “Though he should flee from the iron armour, the brazen bow should strike him through.” So that yf he fle the yron weapens, he shal be shott with the stele bow. – Coverdale. That is, he shall most certainly perish: all kinds of deaths await him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From the iron weapon, i.e. from the sword or spear; and so shall think himself out of danger.
The bow; an arrow shot out of a bow. A distant, place and unknown hand shall unexpectedly fall upon him; so that he shall only go from one danger to another.
Of steel; which is of great strength, and therefore sendeth forth the arrow with greater force. Compare Psa 18:34. Or, of brass, as the word properly signifies; which the ancients did so temper and harden, that their bows were commonly made of it.
Shall strike him through, i.e. mortally wound him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. steelrather, “brass.”While the wicked flees from one danger, he falls into a greater onefrom an opposite quarter [UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He shall flee from the iron weapon,…. The sword, for fear of being thrust through with it; the flaming sword of justice God sometimes threatens to take, and whet, and make use of against ungodly men; the sword of God, as Bar Tzemach observes, is hereby figuratively expressed; fleeing from it, or an attempt to flee from it, shows guilt in the conscience, danger, and a sense of it, and a fear of falling into it, and yet there is no escaping the hand of God, or fleeing from his presence:
[and] the bow of steel shall strike him through; that is, an arrow out of a bow, made of steel or brass, of which bows were formerly made, and reckoned the strongest and most forcible, see Ps 18:34; signifying, that if he should escape the dint of a weapon, a sword or spear used near at hand, yet, as he fled, he would be reached by one that strikes at a distance, an arrow shot from a bow; the sense is, that, if a wicked man escapes one judgment, another will be sure to follow him, and overtake him and destroy him, see Isa 24:17.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(24) He shall flee from the iron weapon, and.That is, if he escaped one mischance, another should overtake him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Bow of steel Not steel, but brass or copper. As bronze tools were used for engraving or sculpturing the rocks, and even in working the quarries, the ancient Egyptian must have possessed some lost art for tempering copper. Wilkinson found a chisel at Thebes with very little alloy; of 100 parts, 94.0 being copper, 5.9 tin, 0.1 iron, the point of which was intact, while the top was turned over by the blows it had received from the mallet. Anc. Egypt, P.A., 2:158. The verse evidently contains a proverb similar to the classic Scylla and Charybdis. Compare Amo 5:19; Isa 24:18. The German would say, “He escapes from the smoke, but falls into the fire.” Nothing could escape him, and he can not escape his fate.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, [and] the bow of steel shall strike him through.
Ver. 24. He shall flee from the iron weapon ] i.e. While he seeks to shun one mischief he shall fall into another; and when he thinks to run from death he runs to it. God, who can do what be will with his own bare hand, is here brought in, after the manner of men with sword and bow, to show that both at home and afar off he can tame his rebels. Neither boots it any man to stand out with God, or to seek to save himself by fight or flight; since he is that “King, against whom there is no rising up,” Pro 30:31 , and if he be angry, no other helps can relieve us. Brass and iron can fence me against an arrow or a sword, but if I were to be cast into a furnace of fire, it would help to torment me, if into a pit of water, to sink me. Now our God is a consuming fire, and his breath a stream of brimstone, Isa 30:33 . “Submit yourselves therefore to God,” Jas 4:7 . Humble yourselves therefore under his mighty hand, and ho shall lift you up in due season, 1Pe 5:6 . To run in to God is the way to escape him; as to close and get in with him that would strike you doth avoid the blow.
And the bow of steel shall strike him through
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
flee from: 1Ki 20:30, Isa 24:18, Jer 48:43, Jer 48:44, Amo 5:19, Amo 9:1-3
the bow: 2Sa 22:35
strike him: Pro 7:23
Reciprocal: Exo 14:25 – Let us flee Job 15:22 – and he is Job 27:22 – he would fain flee Eze 11:8 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 20:24-25. He shall flee from the iron weapon That is, from the sword or spear; and so shall think himself out of danger. The bow of steel Which is of great strength, and therefore sendeth forth the arrow with greater force; shall strike him through Shall mortally wound him. He shall flee from one danger, but another, still greater, shall overtake him. It is drawn Namely, the arrow which had entered into his body, and now is drawn out of it, either by himself or some other person. Yea, the glittering sword Hebrew, , ubarak, literally, the lightning, and thence a glittering weapon, the bright sword, or spear; as Deu 32:41. By this it is implied he was doubly wounded, first with the arrow, and then with the sword or spear: cometh out of his gall Into which it had entered, and wherewith it was coloured. This shows that the wound was both deep and deadly, as wounds are in that part. It is probable he mentions this in reference to a similar expression of Job 16:13. Terrors are upon him Namely, the terrors of death; because he perceives, by the tincture of his gall upon the weapon, that his wound is incurable. Or horrors of conscience, because he cannot live, and dare not die.