Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant;
Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.
Metam. lib. i., ver. 3. "Floods were with milk, and floods with nectar, fill'd;
And honey from the sweating oak distill'd."
Dryden.
Horace employs a similar image in nearly the same words: -
Mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis;
Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.
Epod. xvi., ver. 46. "From hollow oaks, where honey'd streams distil,
And bounds with noisy foot the pebbled rill."
Francis.
Job employs the same metaphor, [Job 29:6] : -
When I washed my steps with butter,
And the rock poured out to me rivers of oil.
Isaiah, also, [Isa 7:22], uses the same when describing the produce of a heifer and two ewes: -
From the plenty of milk that they shall produce,
He shall eat butter: butter and honey shall he eat,
Whosoever is left in the midst of the land.
And Joel, [Joe 3:18] : -
And it shall come to pass in that day,
The mountains shall drop down new wine,
And the hills shall flow with milk;
And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters.
These expressions denote fertility and abundance; and are often employed to point out the excellence of the promised land, which is frequently denominated a land flowing with milk and honey: and even the superior blessings of the Gospel are thus characterized, [Isa 51:1].
Verse 18
That which he laboureth for shall he restore - I prefer here the reading of the Arabic, which is also supported by the Syriac, and is much nearer to the Hebrew text than the common version. He shall return to labor, but he shall not eat; he shall toil, and not be permitted to enjoy the fruit of his labor. The whole of this verse Mr. Good thus translates: - "To labor shall he return, but he shall not eat.
A dearth his recompense: yea, nothing shall he taste."
It may be inquired how Mr. Good arrives at this meaning. It is by considering the word יעלס yaalos, which we translate he shall rejoice, as the Arabic (Arabic) alasa, "he ate, drank, tasted;" and the word כהיל kehil, which we make a compound word, keeheyl, "according to substance," to be the pure Arabic word (Arabic) kahala, "it was fruitless," applied to a year of dearth: hence kahlan, "a barren year." Conceiving these two to be pure Arabic words, for which he seems to have sufficient authority, he renders תמורתו temuratho, his recompense, as in [Job 15:31], and not restitution, as here. The general meaning is, He shall labor and toil, but shall not reap, for God shall send on his land blasting and mildew. Houbigant translates the verse thus: Reddet labore partum; neque id absumet; copiosae fuerunt mercaturae ejus, sed illis non fruetur. "He shall restore what he gained by labor, nor shall he consume it; his merchandises were abundant, but he shall not enjoy them." O, how doctors disagree! Old Coverdale gives a good sense, which is no unfrequent thing with this venerable translator: -
But laboure shal he, and yet have nothinge to eate; great travayle shal he make for riches, but he shal not enjoye them.
Verse 19
He hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor - Literally, He hath broken in pieces the forsaken of the poor; כי רצץ עזב דלים ki ritstsats azab dallim. The poor have fled from famine, and left their children behind them; and this hard-hearted wretch, meaning Job all the while, has suffered them to perish, when he might have saved them alive.
He hath violently taken away a house which he builded not - Or rather, He hath thrown down a house, and hath not rebuilt it. By neglecting or destroying the forsaken orphans of the poor, mentioned above, he has destroyed a house, (a family), while he might, by helping the wretched, have preserved the family from becoming extinct.
Verse 20
Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly - I have already remarked that the word בטן beten, which we translate belly, often means in the sacred Scriptures the whole of the human trunk; the regions of the thorax and abdomen, with their contents; the heart, lungs, liver, etc., and consequently all the thoughts, purposes, and inclinations of the mind, of which those viscera were supposed to be the functionaries. The meaning seems to be, "He shall never be satisfied; he shall have an endless desire after secular good, and shall never be able to obtain what he covets."
Verse 21
There shall none of his meat be left - Coverdale translates thus: He devoured so gredily, that he left nothinge behynde, therefore his goodes shal not prospere. He shall be stripped of every thing.
Verse 22
In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits - This is a fine saying, and few of the menders of Job's text have been able to improve the version. It is literally true of every great, rich, wicked man; he has no God, and anxieties and perplexities torment him, notwithstanding he has his portion in this life.
Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him - All kinds of misery shall be his portion. Coverdale translates: Though he had plenteousnesse of every thinge, yet was he poore; and, therefore, he is but a wretch on every syde.
Verse 23
When he is about to fill his belly - Here seems a plain allusion to the lustings of the children of Israel in the desert. God showered down quails upon them, and showered down his wrath while the flesh was in their mouth. The allusion is too plain to be mistaken; and this gives some countenance to the bishop of Killala's version of [Job 20:20] - "Because he acknowledged not the quail in his stomach,
In the midst of his delight he shall not escape."
That שלו, which we translate quietness, means a quail, also the history of the Hebrews' lustings, [Exo 16:2-11], and [Num 11:31-35], sufficiently proves. Let the reader mark all the expressions here, [Job 20:20-23], and compare them with [Num 11:31-35], and he will probably be of opinion that Zophar has that history immediately in view, which speaks of the Hebrews' murmurings for bread and flesh, and the miraculous showers of manna and quails, and the judgments that fell on them for their murmurings. Let us compare a few passages: - [Job 20:20]. He shall not feel quietness - שלו selav, the quail. "He shall not save of that which he desired." [Job 20:21] : "There shall none of his meat be left." [Exo 16:19] : "Let no man leave of it till the morning." [Job 20:22]. In the fullness of his sufficiency, he shall be in straits - [Exo 16:20] : "But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank." [Job 20:23]. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating - [Num 11:33] : "And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague." [Psa 78:26-30] : "He rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: so they did eat and were filled-but, while the meat was in their mouth, the wrath of God came upon them," etc. These show to what Zophar refers.
Verse 24
He shall flee from the iron weapon - Or, "Though he should flee from the iron armor, 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.