to see · verb, qal jussive, 3rd person masculine singular
rivers
בִפְלַגּ֑וֹתvif.la.Got
H6390
a runlet · preposition + noun, common feminine plural absolute
floods
נַהֲרֵ֥יna.ha.Rei
H5104
a stream (including the sea · noun, common masculine plural construct
brooks
נַ֝חֲלֵ֗יna.cha.Lei
H5158
a stream · noun, common masculine plural construct
honey
דְּבַ֣שׁde.Vash
H1706
honey (from its stickiness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
butter
וְחֶמְאָֽהve.chem.'Ah
H2529
curdled milk or cheese · conjunction + 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 32:13-14 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the roc…
Job 29:6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Luke 16:24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongu…
Numbers 14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
2 Samuel 17:29 And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is…
2 Kings 7:2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this th…
Psalms 36:8-9 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
Psalms 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 20:10-22
The instances here given of the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world are expressed with great fulness and fluency of language, and the same thing returned to again and repeated in other words. Let us therefore reduce the particulars to their proper heads, and observe,
I. What his wickedness is for which he is punished.
1. The lusts of the flesh, here called the sins of his youth (Job 20:11); for those are the sins which, at that age, people are most tempted to. The forbidden pleasures of sense are said to be sweet in his mouth (Job 20:12); he indulges himself in all the gratifications of the carnal appetite, and takes an inordinate complacency in them, as yielding the most agr…
floods--literally, "stream of floods," plentiful streams flowing with milk, &c. (Job 29:6; Exo 3:17). Honey and butter are more fluid in the East than with us and are poured out from jars. These "rivers" or water brooks are in the sultry East emblems of prosperity.
John Gill on Job 20:17
He shall not see the rivers,.... Of water, or meet with any to assuage his thirst, which poison excites, and so makes a man wish for water, and desire large quantities; but this shall not be granted the wicked man; this might be illustrated in the case of the rich man in hell, who desired a drop of cold water to cool his tongue, but could not have it, Luke 16:24; though rather plenty of good things is here intended, see Isaiah 48:18; as also the following expressions:
the floods, the brooks of honey and butter; or "cream"; which are hyperbolical expressions, denoting the great profusion and abundance of temporal blessings, which either the covetous rich man was ambitious of obtaining, and h…
17 He shall not delight himself in streams,
Like to rivers and brooks of honey and cream.
18 Giving back that for which he laboured, he shall not swallow it;
He shall not rejoice according to the riches he hath gotten.
19 Because he cast down, let the destitute lie helpless;
He shall not, in case he hath seized a house, finish building it.
20 Because he knew no rest in his craving,
He shall not be able to rescue himself with what he most loveth.
As poets sing of the aurea aetas of the paradise-like primeval age: Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant,
(Note: Ovid, Metam. i. 112, comp. Virgil, Ecl. iv. 30:
Et durae quercus sudabant roscida mella;
and Horace, Epod. xvi. 47
Mella cava…
The Church Fathers
"They will not rejoice on the division of the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds." These words mean that those rivers were divided on Mount Calvary, and the streams derived from the rivers signify the gifts of the Spirit communicated by the revelation of the Gospel.
"Let him never gather the milk of his flocks. The product of herds is the acts of justice; let him not fulfill them, so that he may better appreciate the benefit of redemption. "Neither honey nor butter:" good works conceived in charity and in the joy of the heart and generously accomplished because butter is like milk fat.
Ver. 17. He shall not see the streamlets of the torrent river of honey and butter. 20. The Lord saith in the Gospel; He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [John 7, 38. 39.] Where the Evangelist subjoins, saying, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. And so 'the streamlets of the river' are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Charity is 'a streamlet of the river,' faith is 'a streamlet of the river,' hope is 'a streamlet of the river.' But because no hypocrite ever loves either God or his neighbour, when he makes the transitory glory of the world his aim, he does not see the streamlets of the river, in that he is not watered with the overflowing of charity. Whereas the hypocrite goes after present gains, he disregards future blessings, and not having faith, he sees not in the mind 'the streamlet of the river,' inasmuch as faith is the evidence of things not seen. [Heb. 11, 1] And while the hypocrite clings to the things that are seen, he makes light of those, which are not seen, therefore he does not see the 'streamlets of the river' in desire, in that he is taken up with visible things alone. And it is written, For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? [Rom. 8, 24] He then would have seen 'streamlets of the river' if he had shut his eyes to the glory of this world, and opened them to the love of the heavenly country. And observe that he does not say 'streams,' but 'streamlets.' For the 'streamlets of the river' may be taken for those spiritual gifts, which trickle in such fine streams from heavenly sources into the soul of him that loveth, that they can never be compassed by the mouth of the flesh. For it is often the case that the spirit of him that loves is filled with such a mighty gift of contemplation, that it has power to see what it has not power to utter. Now the 'torrent river' is the inundation of the Holy Spirit itself, which in exuberant outpouring is gathered in the soul of him in contemplation, when his mind is full beyond what he is able to comprehend. And it is necessary to be known, that when the grace of the Holy Spirit bathes us, it fills us with 'honey and butter' equally. For 'honey' falls from above, but 'butter' is drawn from the milk of animals, and so 'honey' is from the air, 'butter' from the flesh. But the Only-begotten Son…
Dictionary and topics
Butter — (Heb. hemah), curdled milk (Gen. 18:8; Judg. 5:25; 2 Sam. 17:29), or butter in the form of the skim of hot milk or cream, called by the Arabs kaimak, a semi-fluid (Job 20:17; 29:6; Deut. 32:14). The…
Milk — (1.) Hebrew halabh, “new milk”, milk in its fresh state (Judg. 4:19). It is frequently mentioned in connection with honey (Ex. 3:8; 13:5; Josh. 5:6; Isa. 7:15, 22; Jer. 11:5). Sheep (Deut. 32:14) and…
River — (1.) Heb. ‘aphik, properly the channel or ravine that holds water (2 Sam. 22:16), translated “brook,” “river,” “stream,” but not necessarily a perennial stream (Ezek. 6:3; 31:12; 32:6; 34:13). (2.)…
Afflictions Of The Wicked, The · Are multiplied — Are multiplied
Brooks · Illustrative: Of temporal abundance — Illustrative: Of temporal abundance
Butter · 5:25; — 5:25;
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Riches · Denunciations against those who: Spend, upon their appetite — Denunciations against those who: Spend, upon their appetite
Rivers · Illustrative: Of abundance — Illustrative: Of abundance
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
