Job 20:26

All darkness [shall be] hid in his secret places,.... In such places of secrecy, where he may promise himself safety, he shall find more calamities of all sorts; or every kind of judgments shall find

All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

All darkness, i.e. all sorts of miseries, both of soul, and body, and estate. Shall be hid, or, is hid, or laid up, to wit, by God for him. This phrase may note, that though it be not actually upon him, yet it is reserved and treasured up for him, and is kept as in a sure place, and shall infallibly overtake him. In his secret places; either, 1. In his hid treasures, as this very word signifies, . He treasures up wealth, and with God’ s wrath and curse. Or, 2. In those places where he confidently hopes to hide and secure himself from all evils and enemies; yet even there God shall find him out. Or, for, or instead of, (or with, for both ways the prefix lamed is oft used,) his hid treasures. A fire not blown, to wit, by man, but kindled by God himself, as that was, . He thinks by his might and violence to secure himself from men, but God by his own immediate hand, or in some unknown and unexpected manner, will find him out. Some understand it of hell-fire; of which see . With him that is left in his tabernacle, i.e. with his posterity or family, who shall inherit his curse as well as his estate.

Job 20:26 All darkness [shall be] hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.Ver. 26. All darkness shall be hid in his secret places] That is, saith Diodati, wheresoever he shall think to find a place of safeguard there shall he meet with some horrible mischance. Men that are proscribed, and sought for to death, usually hide themselves, as various Jews did in privies at the last destruction of Jerusalem, and were thence drawn out to the slaughter. The duke of Buckingham, in Richard III’ s time, was betrayed by his servant Bannister. Appian telleth of a Roman hid by his wife, and then exposed by his wife to the murderer, to whom she soon after also was married (De Bell. Civ. Rom.). Others render and sense the words thus, The wicked shall come into darkness, propter abscondita, for his secret sins. And others thus, All darkness is laid up for his hid treasures; that is, God or men have taken order that he shall lose his riches as well as his life, though he hide them never so secretly. A fire not blown shall consume him] i.e. say some, calamities whose causes shall be unknown, and shall proceed immediately from God. See Isaiah 30:33. Many of the Greeks interpret this text of hell, with its unquenchable fire, Matthew 3:12, which being created by God, and kindled by his breath, that is, by his word, it burneth everlastingly. Albeit God many times punisheth wicked men here with fire from heaven, as he did Sodom, Nadab and Abihu, those captains of fifties with their companies, 2 Kings 1:9-12 Tremellius rendereth it thus, A fire consumeth him, non accensum flatis, I say him, not kindled by blowing, but burning of his own accord, as stubble fully dried, or hurds, or sear wood, Ut stipulae aut stupae. Ut cremium aut arefactum lignum. See Nahum 1:10. It shall go ill with him that is left] His posterity shall never prosper, but be rooted out. Eliphaz and Bildad had said the same thing; and all to pay poor Job, whose family was now ruined. It shall surely go ill with him, or, He shall be wringed, saith Broughton; alluding to the likeness of the sound as well as the sense of the Hebrew word.

(26) All darkness shall be hid in his secret places.—Rather, All darkness, every kind of disaster, is laid up for his secret treasures.A fire not blown.—By human hands, &c.

Verse 26. A fire not blown shall consume him] As Zophar is here showing that the wicked cannot escape from the Divine judgments; so he points out the different instruments which God employs for their destruction. The wrath of God - any secret or supernatural curse. The iron weapon - the spear or such like. The bow, and its swift-flying arrow. Darkness - deep horror and perplexity. A fire not blown - a supernatural fire; lightning: such as fell on Korah, and his company, to whose destruction there is probably here an allusion: hence the words, It shall go ill with him who is left in his tabernacle. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. Get ye up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Depart from the tents of these wicked men. There came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense;" Numbers 16:20, &c.

26. All darkness is laid up for his treasures; A fire not blown shall consume him, It shall devour him that is left in his tent. “Darkness” is a figure for calamity; cf. ch. Job 15:22-23. “Laid up,” i. e. reserved, destined, for. “Him that is left” may also mean “that which is left,” Job 20:21. A fire “not blown” by mortal breath or man’s mouth, but the fire of God, consumes him; or, it may be a fire which kindles itself,—an allusion to the self-avenging nature of sin; cf. ch. Job 15:34.

All darkness shall be hid in his secret places - The word “darkness” here, as is common, means evidently calamity. The phrase “is hid,” means is treasured up for him.

26. His secret places — All darkness shall be hid in his treasures. Darkness is used for dark fate, calamity. He bides (tsaphan) his treasures; God hides (taman) with them his darkness.