Job - 21:20



20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Job 21:20.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the fury of the Almighty.
His own eyes see his destruction, And of the wrath of the Mighty he drinketh.
Let his eyes see his trouble, and let him be full of the wrath of the Ruler of all!
Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of Shaddai.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

His eyes shall see his destruction - That is, his own eyes shall see his destruction, or the calamities that shall come upon him. That is, "You maintain that, or this is the position which you defend." Job designs to meet this, and to show that it is not always so.
And he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty - Wrath is often represented as a cup which the wicked are compelled to drink. See the notes, Isaiah 51:17.

His eyes shall see his destruction - He shall perceive its approach, and have the double punishment of fearing and feeling; feeling a Thousand deaths in fearing One.
He shall drink of the wrath - The cup of God's wrath, the cup of trembling, etc., is frequently expressed or referred to in the sacred writings, Deuteronomy 32:33; Isaiah 51:17-22; Jeremiah 25:15; Revelation 14:8. It appears to be a metaphor taken from those cups of poison which certain criminals were obliged to drink. A cup of the juice of hemlock was the wrath or punishment assigned by the Athenian magistrates to the philosopher Socrates.

(k) His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
(k) When God recompenses his wickedness, he will know that his prosperity was vanity.

His eyes shall see his destruction,.... Or "should see his destruction" (b); calamities coming upon himself and upon his children; or otherwise it will not affect him: but when a man has a personal experience of affliction as punishments of his sin, or with his own eyes sees his children in distressed circumstances on his account, this must sensibly affect him, and be a sore punishment to him; as it was to Zedekiah to have his children slain before his eyes, Jeremiah 52:10;
and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty; or "he should drink" (c) of it now, according to the principles of Job's friends, even he in person, and not his posterity only; the wrath of God is on account of sin, and dreadful to bear: if the wrath of a temporal king is as the roaring of a lion, what must be the wrath of the Almighty God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords? this is frequently in Scripture compared to a cup, and is called a cup of trembling, of wrath and fury: and of which all the wicked of the earth shall drink sooner or later, Psalm 75:8; but this they should do now, according to the notions of Job's friends, whereas they do not; waters of a full cup, though not in wrath indeed, are wrung out to the people of God, and, as they apprehend, in wrath, when the wicked drink wine in bowls, and the cup of their prosperity overflows.
(b) "videret ejus oculi exitium suum", Beza, Cocceius. (c) "biberet", Beza, Cocceius.

Another questionable assertion of the friends, that the sinner sees his own and his children's destruction in his lifetime.
drink-- (Psalm 11:6; Isaiah 51:17; Lamentations 4:21).

See - He shall be destroyed; as to see death, is to die.

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