SEV Biblia, Chapter 20:17
No verį los arroyos, las riberas de los ríos de miel y de manteca.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Job 20:17
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 chap. xxix. 6. To the Hebrews such expressions were quite familiar. See Exod. iii. 8; xiii. 5; xxxiii. 3; 2 Kings xviii. 32; Deut. xxxi. 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: - caire filov. egw tode toi pempw memigmenon meli leukw sun galakti kirnamena dĘ eersĘ amfepei pomĘ aoidimon, aiolisin en pnoaisin aulwn. 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." DRYDEN.
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, chap. xxix. 6: ] When I washed my steps with butter, And the rock poured out to me rivers of oil.
Isaiah, also, Isa. vii. 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, Joel iii. 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, Isa. li. 1.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 10-22 - The miserable condition of the wicked man in this world is fully se forth. The lusts of the flesh are here called the sins of his youth His hiding it and keeping it under his tongue, denotes concealment of his beloved lust, and delight therein. But He who knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it. The love of the world, and of the wealth of it, also is wickedness, and man set his heart upon these. Also violence and injustice, these sins brin God's judgments upon nations and families. Observe the punishment of the wicked man for these things. Sin is turned into gall, than whic nothing is more bitter; it will prove to him poison; so will all unlawful gains be. In his fulness he shall be in straits, through the anxieties of his own mind. To be led by the sanctifying grace of God to restore what was unjustly gotten, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy But to be forced to restore by the horrors of a despairing conscience as Judas was, has no benefit and comfort attending it.
Original Hebrew
אל 408 ירא 7200 בפלגות 6390 נהרי 5104 נחלי 5158 דבשׁ 1706 וחמאה׃ 2529
