an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct
wicked
רְשָׁעִ֗יםre.sha.'Im
H7563
morally wrong · noun, common masculine plural absolute
fail
תִּ֫כְלֶ֥ינָהtikh.Lei.nah
H3615
to end · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
escape
אָבַ֣ד'a.Vad
H6
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
hope
וְ֝תִקְוָתָ֗םve.tik.va.Tam
H8615
literally a cord (as an attachment) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
up
מַֽפַּחma.pach-
H4646
a breathing out (of life) · noun, common masculine singular construct
ghost
נָֽפֶשׁNa.fesh
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 28:65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a tremblin…
Job 17:5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
Job 31:16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
Leviticus 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause…
Job 8:13-14 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:
Job 18:14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?
Job 27:22 For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 11:13–end
Zophar, as the other two, here encourages Job to hope for better times if he would but come to a better temper.
I. He gives him good counsel (Job 11:13, Job 11:14), as Eliphaz did (Job 5:8), and Bildad, Job 8:5. He would have him repent and return to God. Observe the steps of that return. 1. He must look within, and get his mind changed and the tree made good. He must prepare his heart; there the work of conversion and reformation must begin. The heart that wandered from God must be reduced - that was defiled with sin and put into disorder must be cleansed and put in order again - that was wavering and unfixed must be settled and established; so the word here signifies. The heart is then pre…
A warning to Job, if he would not turn to God.
The wicked--that is, obdurate sinners.
eyes . . . fail--that is, in vain look for relief (Deu 28:65). Zophar implies Job's only hope of relief is in a change of heart.
they shall not escape--literally, "every refuge shall vanish from them."
giving up of the ghost--Their hope shall leave them as the breath does the body (Pro 11:7).
Next: Job Chapter 12
John Gill on Job 11:20
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail,.... Either through grief and envy at Job's prosperity, and with looking for his fall into troubles again; or rather through expectation of good things for themselves, and for deliverance out of trouble, but all in vain; see Lamentations 4:17;
and they shall not escape; afflictions and calamities in this life, nor the righteous judgment, nor wrath to come: or, "refuge shall perish from them" (a); there will be none to betake themselves unto for safety; in vain will they seek it from men; refuge will fail them, and no man care for them; and in vain will they fly to rocks and mountains to fall upon them:
and their hope shall be as the giving up of the gh…
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail and refuge shall perish from them, and their hope shall be the abomination of the soul. That by the designation of 'eyes' the energy of the intention is set forth to us, 'Truth' testifies in the Gospel, saying, If thine eye shall be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Forasmuch as if a pure intention have preceded our action, howsoever it may seem otherwise to men, yet to the eyes of our interior Judge, the body of the deed that follows after is presented pure. Therefore the 'eyes' of the wicked are the intentions of carnal desires in them, and these fail for this reason, that they are careless of their eternal interests, and are ever looking for transitory advantages alone. For they aim to get themselves an earthly name, they wish above all things to grow and increase in temporal goods, they are daily advancing with the tide of transient things to the goal of death; but they think not to take account of the things of mortality upon the principles of their mortal nature. The life of the flesh is failing minute by minute, and yet the desire of the flesh is growing; property gotten is snatched off by an instant end, yet the eagerness in getting is not ended the more; but when death withdraws the wicked, then indeed their desires are ended with their life. And the eyes of these fail them through the Avenging of the Most High, for that they would not fail here by their own determination to earthly gratification. These same eyes of such persons the Psalmist had seen closed to their former enjoyment, when he said, In that day all their thoughts perish. For they meet at once with eternal woes they had never thought on, and on a sudden lose the temporal goods, they had long while held and dealt with. And for these 'all refuge shall perish,' in that their iniquity finds not where to hide itself from the visitation of the searching Judge. For now, when the wicked undergo some slight mishaps or evil chances, they find a hiding-place for refuge, in that they forthwith have recourse to the enjoyment of earthly objects of desire. For that poverty torment them not, they beguile the spirit with riches. Or lest the contempt of their neighbours sink them, they exalt themselves with titles. If the body is cloyed with satiety, it is pampered with the variety of viands set before it. If the mind is weighed down by any impulse to…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ghost — An old Saxon word equivalent to soul or spirit. It is the translation of the Hebrew nephesh_ and the Greek _pneuma, both meaning “breath,” “life,” “spirit,” the “living principle” (Job 11:20; Jer.…
Confidence · FALSE — FALSE
Hope · OF THE WICKED — OF THE WICKED
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
16 For thou shalt forget thy grief,
Shalt remember it as waters that flow by.
17 And thy path of life shall be brighter than mid-day;
If it be dark, it shall become as morning.
18 And thou shalt take courage, for now there is hope;
And thou shalt search, thou shalt lie down in safety.
19 And thou liest down without any one making thee afraid;
And many shall caress thy cheeks.
20 But the eyes of the wicked languish,
And refuge vanisheth from them,
And their hope is the breathing forth of the soul.
The grief that has been surmounted will then leave no trace in the memory, like water that flows by (not: water that flows away, as Olshausen explains it, which would be differently expressed; comp.…
Zophar laid out three conditions for restoration (11:15): (1) prepare your heart, in an inward act that is not just a ritual; (2) lift up your hands, a symbolic gesture of prayer, appeal (Exod 9:29; Prov 1:24; Isa 1:15), or surrender; (3) leave all iniquity, not by sacrifice and remorse, but by quitting the sin (cp. Heb 11:6; Jas 4:8; 5:16).
Rashi on Job 11:20
And the eyes of the wicked your enemies,
will fail when they turn to your troubles to see, but will not achieve their desire. Every expression of כליון עינים failure of the eyes, in the holy tongue means one who looks forward to see something but does not achieve [his wish], and as (Deut. 28:32) “and languish (כלות) for them etc.”
way to flee Heb. מנוס. That is a refuge
and their hope What they hope to see in you will be intense grief for them.
