Job 20:21

There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) There shall none of his meat be left.—Rather, There was nothing left that he devoured not, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

Benson Commentary

Job 20:21-22. There shall none of his meat be left, &c. — For his future use; but he shall be stripped of all, which being publicly known, none of his kindred or friends shall trouble themselves to seek for any relics of his estate. But the Hebrew, אין שׁריד לאכלו, een shorid leachlo, rather means, There shall none be left for his meat, that is, he shall leave no heir who shall possess or enjoy his goods. In the fulness of his sufficiency, &c. — In the height of his prosperity he shall be distressed. Every hand of the wicked shall be upon him — So his wickedness shall be punished by those as wicked as himself.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:10-22 The miserable condition of the wicked man in this world is fully set forth. The lusts of the flesh are here called the sins of his youth. His hiding it and keeping it under his tongue, denotes concealment of his beloved lust, and delight therein. But He who knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it. The love of the world, and of the wealth of it, also is wickedness, and man sets his heart upon these. Also violence and injustice, these sins bring God's judgments upon nations and families. Observe the punishment of the wicked man for these things. Sin is turned into gall, than which nothing is more bitter; it will prove to him poison; so will all unlawful gains be. In his fulness he shall be in straits, through the anxieties of his own mind. To be led by the sanctifying grace of God to restore what was unjustly gotten, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy. But to be forced to restore by the horrors of a despairing conscience, as Judas was, has no benefit and comfort attending it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

"There shall none of his meat be left Margin, "or, be none left for his meat." Noyes renders it, "Because nothing escaped his greatness." Prof. Lee, "no surviver shall remain for his provision." But the meaning, probably, is, nothing shall remain of his food, or it shall all be wasted, or dissipated.

Therefore, shall no man look for his goods - Or rather, his goods or his property shall not endure. But a great variety of interpretations has been given to the passage. The Hebrew word rendered "shall look," יחיל yāchı̂yl, is from חוּל chûl, which means, "to turn round, to twist, to whirl;" and thence, arises the notion of being firm, stable, or strong - as a rope that is twisted is strong. That is the idea here; and the sense is, that his property should not be secure or firm; or that he should not prosper. Jerome renders it, "Nothing shall remain of his goods." The Septuagint, "Therefore his good things - αὐτοῦ τὰ ἀγκθά autou ta agatha - shall not flourish" - ἀνθήσει anthēsei.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. look for—rather, "because his goods," that is, prosperity shall have no endurance.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

None of his meat be left for his own future use; but he shall be stripped of all.

Therefore shall no man look for his goods; it being publicly known and observed that he was totally ruined, none of his kindred or friends shall trouble themselves to seek for any relics of his estate, as is usually done after men’s deaths. But this verse is and may be rendered otherwise, There shall none be left for his meat, (i.e. he shall leave no heir who shall possess or enjoy his goods,) because, (for so the Hebrew particle al-chen is oft used; as Genesis 38:26 Numbers 14:13 Psalm 42:7 Jeremiah 48:36) none of his goods shall remain, either for his heir or any other; all shall be utterly lost.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

There shall none of his meat be left,.... Not in his belly, all shall be cast up; none of his substance left for himself or others; none of his riches for his children or heirs, all being consumed: or this may respect either the profuseness or stubbornness of his living, that he should live in great luxury himself, but take no care of the poor; or else keep so mean a table, that there would be nothing left for the poor, not so much as a few crumbs to fall from it; but the first sense seems best; though some render the words, "there shall be none left for his meat" (b), or his substance; he shall leave no children, have no heirs, all his family shall be cut off, see Job 18:19;

therefore shall no man look for his goods; for there shall be none to look for them; or rather there shall be none to look for, all being gone: a man in good circumstances of life, his heirs expect to enjoy much at his death, but when he is stripped of all, as Job was, his relations and friends are in no expectation of having anything at his death; and therefore do not think it worth their while to look out, or make an inquiry whether there is anything for them or not, see Job 20:28.

(b) "non erit superstes haeres qui ejus bonis fruetur"; so some in Mercer. Drusius.

Geneva Study Bible

There shall none of his {k} meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

(k) He will leave nothing to his posterity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. his goods] This may mean his prosperity. In all these verses the retribution corresponds to the sin—the insatiable greediness is recompensed by utter loss and want.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - There shall none of his meat be left; rather, there was nothing left that he detoured not, or nothing remained over from his eating (Schultens). Scarcely intended literally, as Canon Cook supposes. Rather said in reference to the wicked man's persistent oppression and robbery of the poor, the needy, and the powerless (comp. vers. 19, 20; and note our Lord's words, "Ye devour widows' houses," Matthew 23:14). Therefore shall no man look for his goods. This is an impossible rendering. Translate, with Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes, and our Revisers, therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In other words, a Nemesis shall overtake him. For his oppression and cruelty he shall be visited by the Divine auger; a sudden end shall be made of his prosperity, and he shall fall into penury and misfortune. Covert allusion is, no doubt, intended to Job's sudden loss of his extraordinary prosperity by the series of calamities so graphically portrayed in Job 1:13-19. Job 20:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

21 Nothing escaped his covetousness,

Therefore his prosperity shall not continue.

22 In the fulness of his need it shall be strait with him,

Every hand of the needy shall come upon him.

23 It shall come to pass: in order to fill his belly,

He sendeth forth the glow of His anger into him,

And He causeth it to rain upon him into his flesh.

24 He must flee from an iron weapon,

Therefore a brazen bow pierceth him through.

25 It teareth, then it cometh forth out of his body,

And the steel out of his gall,

The terrors of death come upon him.

The words of Job 20:21 are: there was nothing that escaped (שׂריד, as Job 18:19, from שׂרד, Arab. šarada, aufugere) his eating (from אכל, not from אכל), i.e., he devoured everything without sparing, even to the last remnant; therefore טוּבו, his prosperity, his abundant wealth, will not continue or hold out (יחיל, as Psalm 10:5, to be solid, powerful, enduring, whence חיל, Arab. ȟı̂lat, ḥawl). Hupf. transl. differently: nihil ei superstes ad vescendum, itaque non durant ejus bona; but שׂריד signifies first elapsum, and על־כן propterea; and we may retain these first significations, especially since Job 20:21 is not future like Job 20:21. The tone of prediction taken up in Job 20:21 is continued in what follows. The inf. constr. מלאות (prop. מלאות, but with Cholem by the Aleph, since the Waw is regarded as יתיר, superfluous), formed after the manner of the verbs Lamed He (Ew. 238, c), is written like קראות, Judges 8:1 (comp. on the other hand the scriptio devectiva, Leviticus 8:33; Leviticus 12:4); and שׂפקו (with Sin, as Norzi decides after Codd., Kimchi, and Farisol, not Samech) is to be derived from שׂפק (ספק), sufficientia (comp. the verb, 1 Kings 20:10): if his sufficiency exists in abundance, not from שׂפק equals Arab. safqat, ṣafqat, complosio, according to which Schultens explains: if his joyous clapping of hands has reached its highest point (Elizabeth Smith: "while clapping the hands in the fulness of joy"), to which מלאות is not suitable, and which ought at least to be שׁפק כּפּיו. Therefore: in the fulness of his need shall he be straitened (יצר with the tone drawn back for יצר on account of the following monosyllable, although also apocopated futt. follow further on in the strict future signification, according to poetic usage), by which not merely the fearful foreboding is meant, which just in the fullest overflow makes known his impending lot, but the real calamity, into which his towering prosperity suddenly changes, as Job 20:22 shows: All the hands of the destitute come upon him (בּוא seq. acc.: invadere) to avenge on him the injustice done to the needy. It is not necessary to understand merely such as he has made destitute, it is כּל־יד; the assertion is therefore general: the rich uncompassionate man becomes a defenceless prey of the proletaries.