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He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
Job 20:15 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
  • BSB He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
  • 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 23:8The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.
  • Matt 27:3–4Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 20:15YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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

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.