Job 20:17 kjv
He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
Job 20:17 nkjv
He will not see the streams, The rivers flowing with honey and cream.
Job 20:17 niv
He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
Job 20:17 esv
He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.
Job 20:17 nlt
They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil
or rivers of milk and honey.
Job 20 17 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Gen 49:11 | "He washes his garments... His cloak in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk." | Symbol of rich abundance, contrast for wicked's loss. |
| Exod 3:8 | "a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite..." | The promised land of ultimate blessing. |
| Deut 6:3 | "Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that you may prosper and increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you." | Promise of prosperity for obedience. |
| Deut 8:8 | "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey..." | Describing the fertile promised land. |
| Deut 11:9 | "so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors... a land flowing with milk and honey." | Long life and blessings for faithfulness. |
| Deut 32:13 | "He made him ride on the high places of the earth... suck honey from the rock, oil from the flinty rock..." | God's provision and abundance for His people. |
| Josh 5:6 | "...a land flowing with milk and honey." | Fulfillment of the promised land. |
| Ps 23:2 | "He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters." | Abundance and rest under divine care. |
| Ps 37:2 | "For they soon wither like the grass and fade away like the green herb." | Wicked's short-lived prosperity. |
| Ps 73:17-19 | "till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How quickly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!" | End of wicked's prosperity. |
| Prov 24:13 | "My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste." | Honey as desirable and good. |
| Prov 28:27 | "Whoever gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse." | Blessing for the righteous, lack for the uncharitable. |
| Isa 48:18 | "Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea." | Spiritual blessing likened to a river. |
| Isa 58:11 | "And the Lord will guide you continually... like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." | Sustained provision for those who obey God. |
| Jer 32:22 | "You gave them this land, which you had sworn to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey." | Reminding Israel of the promised abundance. |
| Lam 4:7 | "Her princes were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their hair like sapphire." | Historical reference to rich imagery related to nobility (loss of it). |
| Ezek 20:6 | "...to a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands." | God's description of the Promised Land. |
| Luke 16:24 | "And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’" | The rich man's deprivation in the afterlife. |
| Jas 1:11 | "For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits." | The fleeting nature of earthly riches. |
| Rev 7:16 | "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat." | The blessedness of the redeemed in contrast to deprivation. |
| Rev 21:6 | "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." | The ultimate spiritual abundance given by God. |
Job 20 verses
Job 20 17 Meaning
Job 20:17 is spoken by Zophar of Naamath, depicting the utter loss and deprivation that he believes inevitably befalls the wicked. It paints a picture of extreme prosperity and sustenance that the unrighteous person will completely miss out on. The imagery of "streams" and "rivers flowing with honey and curds" symbolizes the richest, most abundant, and delightful forms of sustenance and luxury. The wicked will not partake in or even "see" such blessings, implying a total and lasting exclusion from true well-being and satisfaction.
Job 20 17 Context
Job 20:17 is part of Zophar's second and final speech (Job 20:1-29). Zophar is the third of Job's three friends who came to console him. Throughout their discourses, Job's friends maintain the conventional belief in retribution theology: the righteous prosper, and the wicked suffer. Since Job is suffering intensely, Zophar, like the others, concludes that Job must be wicked, no matter how much Job protests his innocence.
In this chapter, Zophar vividly describes the rapid downfall of the wicked. He argues that even if the wicked momentarily flourish, their prosperity is fleeting and deceptive, "but they perish forever like their own dung" (v. 7). He describes how the wealth they greedily devour will be vomited back up (vv. 12-15) and how divine judgment will consume them. Verse 17 specifically portrays the complete loss of all luxurious abundance, sustenance, and delightful experiences that one might expect from a rich harvest or blessed land. This imagery serves to emphatically highlight the final and utter deprivation that Zophar believes the wicked are destined for.
Job 20 17 Word analysis
He will not see: (Hebrew: לֹא־יִרְאֶה lo'-yir'eh). Lo' (not) is a strong negative particle, expressing absolute negation. Yir'eh comes from the root רָאָה (ra'ah), "to see, behold, perceive, understand." Here it implies complete deprivation and non-enjoyment. It’s not just that he won’t have them, but he won't even perceive or experience them. This suggests total exclusion from these blessings.
the streams, The rivers: (Hebrew: נַהֲרֵי נַחֲלֵי naharey nachaley). This phrase uses two terms for flowing water bodies in close proximity, indicating abundant, continuous flow.
- Streams/Brookes (נַחֲלֵי nachaley from נַחַל nachal): A wadi or valley, often referring to a seasonal torrent or brook that might swell during rains but could dry up. However, in contexts of abundance, it refers to a dependable source of water.
- Rivers (נַהֲרֵי naharey from נָהָר nahar): A larger, more permanent body of flowing water.
- The combination emphasizes plenitude and consistent supply, much like the idea of God's blessing.
flowing with honey: (Hebrew: דְּבַשׁ devash). Honey was a valuable commodity and highly desired food in the ancient Near East, symbolizing sweetness, health, abundance, and pleasure. It was one of the prime markers of the "land flowing with milk and honey," a metaphor for the richness and fertility of the Promised Land. To have rivers of honey would be the epitome of luxury and limitless provision.
and curds: (Hebrew: חֶמְאָה chem'ah). This refers to rich, coagulated milk products like butter, cream, or curds. It was a staple food that indicated pastoral wealth and good sustenance. Along with honey, it represented a rich, well-nourished diet, especially common in lands suited for livestock. The phrase "honey and curds" together is often used in the Bible to describe unparalleled bounty and nourishment.
Words-group analysis:
- "streams, The rivers flowing with honey and curds": This is a hyperbolic image of immense and unimaginable plenty. It directly echoes and contrasts with the frequent biblical description of the Promised Land as "a land flowing with milk and honey." By stating that the wicked "will not see" such a land or such abundance, Zophar underscores the absolute and permanent exclusion of the wicked from God's most lavish blessings and any form of true, sustained prosperity and delight. It speaks of a fundamental denial of the goodness associated with divine favor and earthly blessing.
Job 20 17 Bonus section
- Zophar's words, while forceful, miss the nuances of God's ways as revealed elsewhere in Scripture. While the ultimate fate of the wicked is deprivation, not every instance of suffering (like Job's) is a direct result of personal sin.
- The phrase "honey and curds" indicates both sweetness and richness, making it a very strong symbol of comprehensive provision and pleasantness.
- This verse contributes to the dramatic irony of the book of Job: Zophar intends to condemn Job as wicked by describing such a fate, yet Job, a truly righteous man, is enduring deprivation despite his integrity.
Job 20 17 Commentary
Zophar's declaration in Job 20:17 is a sharp pronouncement of divine retribution against the wicked. He asserts that while they may experience temporary success, their end is always destitution and despair. The vivid imagery of "streams" and "rivers flowing with honey and curds" represents the peak of prosperity, comfort, and delightful sustenance – the kind of blessed existence often promised to the righteous (Exod 3:8; Deut 6:3). For the wicked, Zophar contends, such abundance will be utterly absent from their experience. This verse serves as a climactic point in Zophar's argument, emphasizing the swift and absolute reversal of fortune for those he deems unrighteous. It underscores a key theological point of the friends: the prosperity of the wicked is superficial and transient, and ultimately they will be denied the most enriching blessings, suffering a comprehensive loss of what is truly good. This denial of "seeing" these rivers suggests not merely lack, but a total severance from any source of true spiritual or material well-being.