Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
Parallel translations
- WEB yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.
- BSB yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
- NKJV Yet his food in his stomach turns sour; It becomes cobra venom within him.
- NASB Yet his food in his stomach is changed To the venom of cobras within him.
- NLT But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour, a poisonous venom in their stomach.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Yet that sweet morsel turns sour in his stomach, becoming cobra venom within him. Cherished sin becomes deadly poison.
Overview
Zophar reveals the reversal: the savored sin, once swallowed, turns to deadly venom inside the wicked man. The vivid image shows how sin's brief sweetness yields lethal consequences. It echoes the biblical truth that sin promises pleasure but pays out death, a wage from which only Christ can deliver (Romans 6:23).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Rom 3:13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
- Ps 38:1–8O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
- Prov 1:31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Deut 32:24They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
- Prov 23:20–21Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
- Prov 23:29–35Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
- Jer 2:19Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
- Ps 51:8–9Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
- 2 Sam 12:10–11Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
- 2 Sam 11:2–5And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
- Job 20:16He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
- Mal 2:2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 20:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.