an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
saw
שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּShe.za.fa.tu
H7805
to tan (by sunburning) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
more
תוֹסִ֑יףto.Sif
H3254
to add or augment (often adverbial · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
place
מְקוֹמֽוֹme.ko.Mo
H4725
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
behold
תְּשׁוּרֶ֥נּוּte.shu.Re.nu
H7789
to spy out · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Job 7:8 The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.
Job 7:10 He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
Job 8:18 If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Job 20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Psalms 37:10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
Psalms 37:36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
Job 27:3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Psalms 103:15-16 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 20:1-9
Here, I. Zophar begins very passionately, and seems to be in a great heat at what Job had said. Being resolved to condemn Job for a bad man, he was much displeased that he talked so like a good man, and, as it should seem, broke in upon him, and began abruptly (Job 20:2): Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer. He takes no notice of what Job had said to move their pity, or to evidence his own integrity, but fastens upon the reproof he gave them in the close of his discourse, counts that a reproach, and thinks himself therefore obliged to answer, because Job had bidden them be afraid of the sword, that he might not seem to be frightened by his menaces. The best counsel is too often ill t…
Rather "the eye followeth him, but can discern him no more." A sharp-looking is meant (Job 28:7; Job 7:10).
John Gill on Job 20:9
The eye also which saw him shall see him no more,.... In this world, concerned in the affairs of life, and busy in worldly employments, and especially in the grandeur he sometimes was, if not removed by death; but the former sense seems most agreeable by what follows,
neither shall his place any more behold him; the men of his place, as Ben Gersom, those that lived in the same place he did; or he shall not be seen, and known, and acknowledged any more as the master, owner, and proprietor of the house he formerly dwelt in; this seems to be taken from Job's own words in Job 7:10. The above Jewish commentator interprets this verse of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, whom Moses and the Israelites wou…
6 If his aspiration riseth to the heavens,
And he causeth his head to touch the clouds:
7 Like his dung he perisheth for ever;
Those who see him say: Where is he?
8 As a dream he flieth away, and they cannot find him;
And he is scared away as a vision of the night.
9 The eye hath seen him, and never again,
And his place beholdeth him no more.
10 His children must appease the poor,
And his hands give up his wealth.
11 His bones were full of youthful vigour;
Now it is laid down with him in the dust.
If the exaltation of the evil-doer rises to heaven, and he causes his head to reach to the clouds, i.e., to touch the clouds, he notwithstanding perishes like his own dung. We are here reminded of…
The Church Fathers
"The eye will see, and will not seek" to see. We will not see him anymore.
This means that their ruin comes suddenly, so that you may not believe that their calamity comes from a natural condition but that it is in accordance with a divine and extraordinary power. Moreover, this concerns not only their crimes but also their sacrifices. If they offer any, they turn out to be useless. "Let his inferiors," Zophar says, "destroy his children." This sentence also demonstrates clearly that the blow comes from God, because inferior people prevail on those who are stronger, and those who are outcast prevail on those who have power.
Ver. 9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more: neither shall his place any more behold him. 8. What is the 'place' of the hypocrite, saving the heart of his flatterers? For there he rests, where he finds partialities towards him. Therefore 'the eye that saw him shall see him no more,' because being removed by death, he is hidden from his foolish lovers, who were wont to behold him, admiring him. 'Neither shall his place any more behold him,' because the tongues of his flatterers do not follow him with their partialities to the Judgment. Yet so long as he lives he does not cease to teach his followers likewise the things that he practises himself; and through the frowardness of his erring way he begets others also in a likeness to that false pretension which he shews forth. Concerning whom it is fitly added in this place.
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
Ambition · Vanity of — Vanity of
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
