Job 20:9

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The eye which saw him shall see him no more, Neither shall his place any more see him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ

shâzaph

H7805

“to see · him”

Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 3× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2357

(Qal) to catch sight of, look on

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
7: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ to see H7805 — appearing just 3 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ to see H7805

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ to see H7805 occurs in 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
1 adverb
2 particles

Verb forms

שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ Qal · Perfect
תוֹסִ֑יף Hiphil · Imperfect
תְּשׁוּרֶ֥נּוּ Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וְלֹ֣א not H3808 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Job 20:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Job 7:8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
Job 7:10 He shall return no more to his house, Neither shall his place know him any more.
Job 8:18 If he is destroyed from his place, Then it shall deny him, saying, 'I have not seen you.'
Job 20:7 Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung, Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'
Psalms 37:10 For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn't there.
Psalms 37:36 But he passed away, and, behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.
Job 27:3 (For the length of my life is still in me, And the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
Psalms 103:15–16 As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Job 20:9 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עַ֣יִן שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ וְלֹ֣א תוֹסִ֑יף וְלֹא ע֝֗וֹד תְּשׁוּרֶ֥נּוּ מְקוֹמֽוֹ

The eye which saw him shall see him no more, Neither shall his place any more see him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Job 20:9 Septuagint · lemma form

ὀφθαλμός παραβλέπω καί οὐ προςτίθημι καί οὐκέτι προςνοέω αὐτός ὁ τόπος αὐτός

The eye has looked upon him, but shall not see him again; and his place shall no longer perceive him.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Job 20:9 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Job 20:9 The eye also [which] saw him shall [see him] no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

Ver. 9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more] He shall be utterly out of sight, out of mind; unkent, unkist, as the northern proverb hath it. See Job 7:8; Job 7:10, where Job speaketh as much of himself, and Zophar here twits him with it, as if Sorex suo periisset indicio, Job were a hypocrite by his own confession; so ingenious is evil will.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Rather "the eye followeth him, but can discern him no more." A sharp-looking is meant (Job 28:7; Job 7:10).

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

9. See ch. Job_7:8-10; Job_8:18; Psa_103:16.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

The eye also which saw him shall see him no more,.... In this world, concerned in the affairs of life, and busy in worldly employments, and especially in the grandeur he sometimes was, if not removed by death; but the former sense seems most agreeable by what follows,

neither shall his place any more behold him; the men of his place, as Ben Gersom, those that lived in the same place he did; or he shall not be seen, and known, and acknowledged any more as the master, owner, and proprietor of the house he formerly dwelt in; this seems to be taken from Job's own words in Job 7:10. The above Jewish commentator interprets this verse of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, whom Moses and the Israelites would see no more, Exo 10:29.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The eye also which saw him - This is almost exactly the language which Job uses respecting himself. See Job 7:8, note; Job 7:10, note.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Behold him, as if it were susceptible of resentment, and entered into the views of God, chap vii. 10., and Psalm xxvi. 35. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

i.e. It shall not acknowledge nor contain him. A figure called prosopopaeia, as Job 7:10. Or, neither shall it (i.e. the eye last mentioned) behold him any more in his place.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

9. The eye — Literally, An eye has looked upon him; it does it not again. The elevation of the wicked made him the object of a brief but earnest gaze. The same Hebrew verb reappears in Job_28:7 and in Son_1:6 — “the sun hath scanned me.” This verse furnishes a striking paraphrase of Job_20:5 — “for a moment” — the pith of the aphorism.

His place — See note on Job_7:10.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; or, the eye which scanned him. The verb used ( is a rare one, occurring only here, in Job_28:7, and in Song of Son_1:6. In the former passage it is used of a falcon, in the latter of the sun. Neither shall his place any more behold him. (comp. Psa_103:16, "The place thereof shall know it no more

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

that glimpsed him That saw him.

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.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Job, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shâzaph (“to see”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to see” (shâzaph) shape what this verse is saying?
The word “to see” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Job 28:7 shares the word «to see» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“not” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ» is Qal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
“not” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.