Job 15 · Verse 20

Job 15:20

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
Job 15:20, King James Version

Job 15:20 in other translations

BSBA wicked man writhes in pain all his days; only a few years are reserved for the ruthless.
WEBthe wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
ASVThe wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
YLT‘All days of the wicked he is paining himself, And few years have been laid up for the terrible one.
DARBYAll his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.
BBEThe evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small.
WebsterThe wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

What does Job 15:20 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
20. travaileth--rather, "trembleth of himself," though there is no real danger [Umbreit]. and the number of his years, &c.--This gives the reason why the wicked man trembles continually; namely, because he knows not the moment when his life must end.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 20 The wicked man travaileth with pain - This is a most forcible truth: a life of sin is a life of misery; and he that Will sin Must suffer. One of the Targums gives it a strange turn: - "All the days of the ungodly Esau, he was expected to repent, but he did not repent; and the number of years was hidden from the sturdy Ishmael." The sense of the original, מתחולל mithcholel, is he torments himself: he is a true heautontimoreumenos, or self-tormentor; and he alone is author of his own sufferings, and of his own ruin.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 15:17-35

Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. But because many of God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore follow that those who are crossed and made poor, as Job, are not God's people. Eliphaz shows also that wicked people, particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live very…

Read the full comment on Job 15:17-35 →

Job 15:20 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כָּל\־kol-allH3605
יְמֵ֣יye.Mei[the] days ofH3117
רָ֭שָׁעRa.sho'a wicked [person]H7563
ה֣וּאhu'heH1931
מִתְחוֹלֵ֑לmit.cho.Lel[is] writhing in painH2342
וּמִסְפַּ֥רu.mis.Parand [the] number ofH4557
שָׁ֝נִ֗יםSha.NimyearsH8141
נִצְפְּנ֥וּnitz.pe.Nu[which] they have been stored upH6845
לֶעָרִֽיץ\׃le.'a.Ritzfor <the> ruthless [person]H6184

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 15:20

  • James 5:1-6

    Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. …

  • Job 27:13

    This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

  • Job 24:1

    Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

  • Luke 12:19-21

    And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

  • Psalms 90:12

    So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

  • Psalms 90:3-4

    Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

  • Ecclesiastes 9:3

    This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

  • Romans 8:22

    For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
travaileth.
Ro 8:22; Ec 9:3
the number.
Ps 90:3,4,12; Lu 12:19-21; Jas 5:1-6

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 15:19

    Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

  • Job 15:20

    The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

  • Job 15:21

    A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

Read all of Job 15

Job 15:20 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Todos los días del impío, él es atormentado de dolor, y el número de años es escondido al violento.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Tous ses jours, le méchant est tourmenté, et peu d’années sont réservées à l’homme violent;
German
Elberfelder 1871		Alle seine Tage wird der Gesetzlose gequält, und eine kleine Zahl von Jahren ist dem Gewalttätigen aufgespart.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Cunctis diebus suis impius superbit, et numerus annorum incertus est tyrannidis ejus.