Job 20:14

Job 20:14 [Yet] his meat in his bowels is turned, [it is] the gall of asps within him.

Ver. 14. Yet his meat in his bowels is turned] Sour sauce be hath at length to his sweet meats, viz. gripes and throbs of conscience, terrors and tortures inexpressible; a greedy vulture feeding upon his entrails (as the poets feigned of Prometheus), those furies or hell hags (so much mentioned by them), as haunting evildoers. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, Pro 29:6. There is a cord to strangle his joys with, to mar his mirth. Did not Joseph’s brethren experiment with this? and Ahab, in his house of ivory? and Belshazzar, amidst his sensualities?

Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus:

Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet.

The sinner’s cup of honey ends in the dregs of gall, even the gall of asps. Volupia and Angerona went yoked together among the Romans. If men would forecast the sad issues of sin, they would only strive to be innocent.

It is the gall of asps within him] Gall of any sort is bitter, but that of asps is most poisonous and mortal. Pliny saith, that the poison of asps is nothing else but their gall. An asp is a kind of serpent, not known in these parts of the world. Aelian writeth, that the biting of an asp is incurable; and others say, that it killeth without remedy within four hours’ time. Unto this kind of poison is sin fitly compared; for when an asp stingeth a man, it doth first tickle him so as it maketh him laugh, then it casteth him into a sleep, till the poison gradually gets to the heart, after which it paineth him more than ever before it delighted him. So doth wickedness. It is a bitter sweet, γλυκυπικρον. Bernard compareth it to the itch, which first yieldeth pleasure, and afterwards smart. Austin saith, many devour that on earth which they must digest in hell, where they shall have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succour, mischief without measure, torments without end, and past imagination. When therefore thou art making a covenant with sin, say to thy soul, as Boaz said to his kinsman, Rth 4:5, What time thou buyest it, thou must have Ruth with it. So if thou wilt have the sweet of sin, thou must have the curse with it; and let thy soul answer, as he there doth, No, I may not do it, I shall mar and spoil a better inheritance.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20:14-16 poisonous venom . . . cobras . . . viper: In the end, the wicked are no longer deadly to others (Matt 3:7; Rom 3:13) but only to themselves (Prov 23:29-35).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

turned--Hebrew denotes a total change into a disagreeable contrary (Jer 2:21; compare Rev 10:9-10).

gall--in which the poison of the asp was thought to lie. It rather is contained in a sack in the mouth. Scripture uses popular language, where no moral truth is thereby endangered.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14. is turned] i. e. is changed,—it becomes the poison of asps in his belly.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Yet his meat in his bowels is turned,.... Or "his bread" (r), to which sin is compared, being what the sinner lives in, and lives upon; what he strengthens himself in and with, and by which he is nourished unto the day of slaughter, and by means of which he grows and proceeds to more ungodliness, though in the issue he comes into starving and famishing circumstances; for this is bread of deceit, and proves to be ashes and gravel stones; it promises pleasure, profit, liberty, and impunity, but is all the reverse; as meat turns in a man's stomach when it does not digest in him, or rather his stomach turns against that, and instead of its being pleasant and agreeable to him, it distresses him and makes him uneasy; sin being compared to meat in the bowels, denotes the finishing of in after it has been conceived in the mind, and completed in the act:

it is the gall of asps within him; which is bitter, though not poison; which yet Pliny (s) suggests, but it seems (t) it is not fact. Sin is an evil and bitter thing, and produces bitter sorrow, and makes bitter work for repentance in good men, Jer 2:19; and fills with distress inexpressible and intolerable in wicked men, as in Cain and Judas in this world, and with black despair, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, and dreadful horrors of conscience, in the world to come, to all eternity; the effect of it is eternal death, the second death, inevitable and everlasting ruin and destruction.

(r) "panis ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Schmidt. (s) Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. (t) Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 711. Philosoph. Transact. abridged, vol. 2. p. 819.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Yet his meat - His food.

In his bowels is turned - That is, it is as if he had taken food which was exceedingly pleasant, and had retained it in his mouth as long as possible, that he might enjoy it, but when he swallowed it, it became bitter and offensive; compare Rev 10:9-10. Sin may be pleasant when it is committed, but its consequences will be bitter.

It is the gall of asps - On the meaning of the word here rendered “asps” (פתן pethen), see the notes at Isa 11:8. There can be little doubt that the “asp,” or aspic, of antiquity, which was so celebrated, is here intended. The bite was deadly, and was regarded as incurable. The sight became immediately dim after the bite - a swelling took place, and pain was felt in the stomach, followed by stupor, convulsions, and death. It is probably the same as the “boetan” of the Arabians. It is about a foot in length, and two inches in circumference - its color being black and white. “Pict. Bib.” The word “gall” (מרורה merôrâh), means “bitterness, acridness” (compare Job 13:26); and hence, bile or gall. It is not improbable that it was formerly supposed that the poison of the serpent was contained in the gall, though it is now ascertained that it is found in a small sack in the mouth. It is used here as synonymous with the “poison” of asps - supposed to be “bitter” and “deadly.” The meaning is, that sin, however pleasant and grateful it may be when committed, will be as destructive to the soul as food would be to the body, which, as soon as it was swallowed, became the most deadly poison. This is a fair account still of the effects of sin.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Turned into another nature or quality, from sweet to bitter.

The gall of asps, i.e. exceeding bitter and pernicious. Gall is most bitter; the gall of serpents is full of poison, which from thence is conveyed to their mouths by veins, as Pliny observes; and the poison of asps is most dangerous, and within a few hours kills without remedy.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. His meat — His food, that is, the wickedness he had eaten.

Turned — Changed into poison. Canon Cook cites from an Arab poet, “crime may be enjoyed, but not digested.”

The gall of asps — It was the opinion of the ancients that “the gall constituted the venom of serpents.” — PLINY, Natural History, 11:75. The asp (pethen) is supposed by some to have been the boeten of the Arab, which is thus described by Forskal: “Spotted all over with black and white; a foot long, and about twice as thick as one’s thumb; oviparous; the bite is instantly fatal, and causes the body to swell.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Yet his meat in his bowels is turned. Still, a time comes when the self-complacency of the wicked man is shaken. He experiences a failure of health or spirits. Then, suddenly, it is as if the meat that he has swallowed had been turned to poison in his bowels, as if the gall of asps were within him. Compare what Bishop Butler says of the sudden waking up of a man"s conscience ("Analogy," pt. 1. ch. 2. p. 52). The ancients seem to have known that the poison of serpents was a strong acid, and therefore supposed that it was secreted by the gallbladder (see Pliny, "Hist. Nat.," 11:37).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Turned - From sweet to bitter. Gall of asps - Exceeding bitter and pernicious. Gall is most bitter; the gall of serpents is full of poison; and the poison of asps is most dangerous and within a few hours kills without remedy.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

His food...within him on the day of his misfortune will turn into the venom of cobras.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.