Job 20:17
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
American King James Version (AKJV)
He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
American Standard Version (ASV)
He shall not look upon the rivers, The flowing streams of honey and butter.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk.
Webster's Revision
He shall not see the river, the floods, the brooks of honey and buttermilk.
World English Bible
He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
English Revised Version (ERV)
He shall not look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
Clarke's Job 20:17 Bible Commentary
Job 20:17He 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; 2 Kings 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. Εγω τοδε τοι
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Barnes's Job 20:17 Bible Commentary
When I washed my steps with cream,
And the rock poured me out rivers of oil. Job 29:6.
Plowing with oxen is mentioned, Job 1:14.
So also Job 31:38-40 :
If my land cry out against me,
And the furrows likewise complain;
If I have eaten its fruits without payment,
And extorted the living of its owners;
Let thistles grow up instead of wheat,
And noxious weeds instead of barley. Job 31:38-40.
The cultivation of the vine and the olive, and the pressure of grapes and olives, is mentioned:
He shall cast his unripe fruit as the vine,
And shed his blossoms like the olive. Job 15:33.
They reap their grain in the field (of others),
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Wesley's Job 20:17 Bible Commentary
20:17 See - Not enjoy that abundant satisfaction and comfort, which good men through God's blessings enjoy.