the womb · noun, common masculine singular absolute
forget
יִשְׁכָּ֘חֵ֤הוּyish.Ka.Che.hu
H7911
to mislay · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
worm
רִמָּ֗הri.Mah
H7415
a maggot (as rapidly bred) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
sweetly
מָתָקmâthâq
H4988
a dainty
remembered
יִזָּכֵ֑רyi.za.Kher
H2142
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wickedness
עַוְלָֽה'av.Lah
H5766
(moral) evil · noun, common feminine singular absolute
broken
וַתִּשָּׁבֵ֖רva.ti.sha.Ver
H7665
to burst (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
tree
כָּעֵ֣ץka.'Etz
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine 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
Proverbs 10:7 The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Daniel 4:14 He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get…
Job 18:16-17 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
Job 14:7-10 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Ecclesiastes 8:10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done…
Isaiah 26:14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 24:18–end
Job here, in the conclusion of his discourse,
I. Gives some further instances of the wickedness of these cruel bloody men. 1. Some are pirates and robbers at sea. To this many learned interpreters apply those difficult expressions (Job 24:18), He is swift upon the waters. Privateers choose those ships that are the best sailors. In these swift ships they cruise from one channel to another, to pick up prizes; and this brings them in so much wealth that their portion is cursed in the earth, and they behold not the way of the vineyards, that is (as bishop Patrick explains it), they despise the employment of those who till the ground and plant vineyards as poor and unprofitable. But others make t…
The womb--The very mother that bare him, and who is the last to "forget" the child that sucked her (Isa 49:15), shall dismiss him from her memory (Job 18:17; Pro 10:7). The worm shall suck, that is, "feed sweetly" on him as a delicate morsel (Job 21:33).
wickedness--that is, the wicked; abstract for concrete (as Job 5:16).
as a tree--utterly (Job 19:10); UMBREIT better, "as a staff." A broken staff is the emblem of irreparable ruin (Isa 14:5; Hos 4:12).
John Gill on Job 24:20
The womb shall forget him,.... His mother that bore him; or his wife, by whom he had many children; or his friend, as Gersom, who had a tender and affectionate respect for him; these all, and each of them, either because of his wicked life and infamous death, care not to speak of him, but bury him in oblivion; or because of his quiet and easy death, are not distressed with it, but soon forget him; unless this is to be understood of the womb of the earth, in which being buried, he lies forgotten, to which the next clause agrees; though some interpret it of God himself the word having the signification of mercy (b); who, though mercy itself, is rich and abundant in it, yet has no mercy for, no…
"Soon their sin was searched," when they thought it completely forgotten. "Let the wicked be broken like the tree that is wasting away," and can not be rejuvenated.
Let mercy forget him. The worm is his sweetness. Almighty God's mercy is said to 'forget him,' who has forgotten Almighty God's justice, in that whoever does not fear Him now as just, can never find him merciful afterward. Which same sentence is not only held out against him, who abandons the preachings of true faith, but against him likewise, who being in the right faith lives a carnal life, in that the vengeance of eternal condemnation is not got quit of, whether sin lie in faith or practice. For though the kind of condemnation be unequal, yet guilt which is not wiped away by repentance, there is no means supplied for the absolving thereof. Whoever desires to make his way prosperous in this world, to surpass the rest of the world, to swell high with substance and honours, to this man no doubt worldly business is a delight, and repose a labour. For he is very much tired if the business of the world be lacking wherewith to be tired. Now because it belongs to the nature of worms to be put in motion unceasingly every moment, restlessness of thoughts is not unjustly denoted by the name of 'worms.' And so 'the worm is the sweetness' of the wicked soul, in that he is fed to his satisfaction from the same source whence he is unceasingly agitated in restlessness. Moreover it may be that by the title of the 'worm' the flesh may be more plainly denoted. Hence it is said further on, How much less man that is a worm? or the son of man which is a worm? And so of everyone that is full of lust and devoted to the pleasures of the flesh, how great is the blindness is shewn, when it is said, The worm, is his sweetness. For what is our flesh but 'rottenness' and 'the worm?' And whosoever pants with carnal desires, what else does he but love 'the worm?' For what the substance of the flesh is, our graves bear witness. What parent, what faithful friend can bear to touch the flesh of one however beloved fraught with worms? And so when the flesh is lusted after, let it be considered what it is when lifeless, and it is understood what it is that is loved. For nothing has so much efficacy to subdue the appetite of carnal desire, as for every one to consider, what that which he loves alive will be when dead. For when we consider the corruption of the flesh, we see in a moment, that when the flesh is unlawfully lusted after, corruption is desired. Therefore it is well said of the…
Dictionary and topics
Worm — (1.) Heb. sas (Isa. 51:8), denotes the caterpillar of the clothes-moth. (2.) The manna bred worms (tola’im), but on the Sabbath there was not any worm (rimmah) therein (Ex. 16:20, 24). Here these…
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
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).
on Job 24:18-21
18 For he is light upon the surface of the water;
Their heritage is cursed upon the earth;
He turneth no more in the way of the vineyard.
19 Drought, also heat, snatch away snow water -
So doth Shel those who have sinned.
20 The womb forgetteth him, worms shall feast on him,
He is no more remembered;
So the desire of the wicked is broken as a tree -
21 He who hath plundered the barren that bare not,
And did no good to the widow.
The point of comparison in Job 24:18 is the swiftness of the disappearing: he is carried swiftly past, as any light substance on the surface of the water is hurried along by the swiftness of the current, and can scarcely be seen; comp. Job 9:26 : "My days shoot by…
These sentiments appear to oppose Job’s observations, so some scholars suggest that they were the words of Bildad or Zophar. However, Job might have been pronouncing curses on the wicked, sarcastically quoting his friends’ views, or saying that the fate of the wicked presented by Eliphaz (5:2-7; 15:17-25), Bildad (8:8-19; 18:5-21), and Zophar (20:4-29) also overtakes the righteous (21:23-26).
Rashi on Job 24:20
The womb forgets him [i.e., the womb of] his mother. Rabbi Tanchum expounded that the generation of the Flood would take their children and place them underneath themselves in order to stop up the windows of the deep, and even his mother would have no mercy on him.
he is sweet to the worms to die, and for the worms to eat their (sic) flesh.
he will no longer be remembered In one year they were [to be] uprooted, but Job was complaining about the reprieve that was given them [the wicked] from the start, for many died and did not see this retribution.
Let him not be in remembrance; let him be crushed like an unfruitful stump. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] As often as in the history of the holy man we betake ourselves in a new book to unravel the mystery of the typical explanation, it must be either from that man's name or course of suffering that we mainly draw out the mystical interpretation, so that after the manner of dwelling houses, whilst we set forth a superscription of the title on the very front of the door post, whereas it is known whose house it is, one may enter with greater security. Now I remember that I have often said that blessed Job, both by his course of suffering and his name, marked out the sufferings of our Redeemer, and of His Body, i.e. Holy Church. For 'Job' is by interpretation 'Grieving.' And who else is represented in this grieving one saving He, concerning Whom it is written, Surely He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Concerning Whom again it is written, And with His bruise we are healed? But his friends bear the likeness of heretics, who, as we have often said already, while they set themselves to defend, only offend God. Thus let the holy man by words and wounds so tell things of his own as at the same time to set forth ours also, and most often, by the spirit of prophecy, relate things to come, surmount things present, yet sometimes so tell of those present as to be silent touching those future, The keeping then of this exercise of discernment being understood in accordance with the altering of his voice, let our understanding likewise turn about, that it may agree the more truly with his ideas in proportion as it also shifts itself with his accents. Thus by the preceding words the holy man, in sentences eloquently formed by the art of wisdom, set forth the offences of the bad man of whatever kind, and represented how damnable his conduct was, of whose punishment he directly adds, saying, Let him not be in remembrance; let him be crushed like an unfruitful stump. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] For he is not brought back into the 'remembrance' of his Creator, whosoever to the very end of his life is in subjection to evil habits. Since if the recollection of the regard from Above did make itself felt on such an one, assuredly it would recall him from his wickedness. For his deserts require that he should be utterly blotted out from his Maker's remembrance. But it is to…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
