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

He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. The wicked is not allowed to have the enjoyment of the overflowing abundance of goods which he has accumulated.

Not see, i.e. not enjoy, as that word is oft used as . The brooks of honey and butter; that abundant satisfaction and comfort, (oft signified by these or suchlike metaphors; as 46:4 ,22 41:18) either which he promised to himself from that great estate which he had got by deceit and oppression, or which good men through God’ s blessing may and commonly do enjoy.

Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.Ver. 17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods] That is, that plenty and abundance of all good things that cometh in to the righteous, Velut confertim, certatim, et affatim, a confluence of all manner of comforts and contentments (Mercer). These the oppressor shall have none of; for being insatiable and vexed with the furies of an evil conscience, they enjoy not anything, though they abound with all things, being worse than tantalized; and if after his fall he seek to recruit himself, he shall never be able to effect it. He shall not see the rivers, &c. The Seventy, and others after them, render it by an elegant apostrophe, Ne, specter rivos, Let him never look after the rivers, &c., for it will never be. He may please himself in hope and expectation of a better condition, but God will surely cross him. For his hoped for riches he shall have poverty, for pleasure pain, for health sickness, for nourishment poison, for dignity disgrace, for the favour of God his wrath and hatred, for life destruction. A further account of the wicked man’ s non-enjoyment of what he hath wrongfully wrested from others Zophar giveth us in the next verse.

(17) The brooks of honey and butter.—He uses language which might lead one to suppose he was familiar with the promise of Canaan, except that, as the phrase is not precisely identical it may perhaps rather show a community of proverbial language, and that the land flowing with milk and honey may have been an expression in use, and not one original with the Pentateuch.

Verse 17. He shall not see the rivers] Mr. Good has the following judicious note on this passage: "Honey and butter are the common results of a rich, well-watered pasturage, offering a perpetual banquet of grass to kine, and of nectar to bees; and thus loading the possessor with the most luscious luxuries of pastoral life, peculiarly so before the discovery of the means of obtaining sugar. The expression appears to have been proverbial; and is certainly used here to denote a very high degree of temporal prosperity." See also Job 29:6. To the Hebrews such expressions were quite familiar. See Exodus 3:8; Exodus 13:5; Exodus 33:3; 2Kg 18:32; Deuteronomy 31:20, and elsewhere. The Greek and Roman writers abound in such images. Milk and honey were such delicacies with the ancients, that Pindar compares his song to them for its smoothness and sweetness: - Χαιρε Φιλος. Εγωτοδετοι Πεμπωμεμιγμενονμελιλευκῳ Συνγαλακτι·κιρναμεναδ' εερς' αμφεπειπομ' αοιδιμον, Αιολισινενπνοαισιναυλων. PIND. Nem. iii., ver. 133. "Hail, friend! to thee I tune my song; For thee its mingled sweets prepare; Mellifluous accents pour along; Verse, pure as milk, to thee I bear; On all thy actions falls the dew of praise; Pierian draughts thy thirst of fame assuage, And breathing flutes thy songs of triumph raise." J. B. C. Qui te, Pollio, amat, veniat, quo te quoque gaudet; Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum. VIRG. Ecl. iii., ver. 88. "Who Pollio loves, and who his muse admires; Let Pollio's fortune crown his full desires Let myrrh, instead of thorn, his fences fill; And showers of honey from his oaks distil!" DRYDEN. OVID, describing the golden age, employs the same image: - 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." 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, Isaiah 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, Isaiah 51:1.

12–22. His sin changes into his punishment.

He shall not see the rivers - That is, he shall not be permitted to enjoy plenty and prosperity. Rivers or rills of honey and butter are emblems of prosperity; compare Exodus 3:17; Job 29:6.

Third strophe — The wicked had counted upon perennial resources of bliss — “rivers of honey and butter” — only to find himself stripped of all his ill-gotten good, and himself the defenceless prey of