He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
- KJV He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
- NKJV He swallows down riches And vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
- NASB “He swallows riches, But will vomit them up; God will expel them from his belly.
- NLT They will vomit the wealth they swallowed. God won’t let them keep it down.
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
He swallows down riches but must vomit them up, for God will expel them from his belly. Ill-gotten wealth cannot be kept.
Overview
Zophar pictures the wicked man forced to disgorge the wealth he greedily consumed, God himself driving it out. The graphic image shows that gains seized unjustly will not be retained but violently lost. The verse affirms that God overturns ill-gotten riches, warning against laying up treasure through wickedness rather than seeking the treasure that endures.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Prov 23:8You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
- Matt 27:3–4When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
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 20:15 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
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