Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Terrors take hold on him as waters - They come upon him as an irresistible flood; and he is overwhelmed as by a tempest in the night, when darkness partly hides his danger, and deprives him of discerning the way to escape.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Terrors-take hold on him as waters - That is, as suddenly and violently as angry floods; compare the notes at Job 18:14.

A tempest stealeth him away - He is suddenly cut off by the wrath of God. A tempest comes upon him as unexpectedly as a thief or robber comes at night. Death is often represented as coming upon man with the silence of a thief, or the sudden violence of a robber at midnight; see the note at Job 21:17; compare Matthew 24:42-44.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Terrors take hold on him as waters,.... The terrors of death, and of an awful judgment that is to come after it; finding himself dying, death is the king of terrors to him, dreading not only the awful stroke of death itself, but of what is to follow upon it; or rather these terrors are those that seize the wicked man after death; perceiving what a horrible condition he is in, the terrors of a guilty conscience lay hold on him, remembering his former sins with all the aggravating circumstances of them; the terrors of the law's curses lighting upon him, and of the wrath and fury of the Almighty pouring out on him and surrounding him, and devils and damned spirits all about him. These will seize him "as waters", like a flood of waters, denoting the abundance of them, "terror on every side", a "Magormissabib", Jeremiah 20:3, will he be, and coming with great rapidity, with an irresistible force, and without ceasing, rolling one after another in a sudden and surprising manner:

a tempest stealeth him away in the night; the tempest of divine wrath, from which there is no shelter but the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ; this comes like a thief, suddenly and unexpectedly, and steals the wicked man out of this world; or rather from the judgment seat, and carries him into the regions of darkness, of horror and black despair, where he is surrounded with the aforesaid terrors; this is said to be in the night, to make it the more shocking and terrible, see Luke 12:19; and may have respect to that blackness that attends a tempest, and to that blackness of darkness reserved for wicked men, Judges 1:13.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

(Job 18:11; Job 22:11, Job 22:21). Like a sudden violent flood (Isaiah 8:7, Isaiah 8:8; Jeremiah 47:2): conversely (Psalm 32:6).

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

Terrors — From the sense of approaching death or judgment.

Waters — As violently and irresistibly, as a river breaking its banks, or deluge of waters bears down all before it.

A tempest — God's wrath cometh upon him like a tempest, and withal unexpectedly like a thief in the night.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Job 27:20 Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

Ver. 20. Terrors take hold on him as waters] Abundantly, suddenly, irresistibly; he is even swallowed up by them and overwhelmed; as he that is plunged into a deep pit full of water, or that hath the proud surges going over his soul, Psalms 124:5. The misery of it is, that these waters are fiery, and hell is a lake; but a burning lake, and such also as hath eternity to the bottom.

A tempest stealeth him away in the night] i.e. Furtim, et repente et horribiliter. Night is itself full of terror; but much more when a tempest is up, and thieves are abroad, &c. Oh! it must needs be a terrible time indeed, when death shall come with a writ of Habeas corpus, and the devil with another of Habeas animam upon a man at once. Petrus Suetorius speaketh of one that preaching a funeral sermon on a certain canon at Paris, and giving him large commendations, heard at the same time a voice in the church, Mortuus sum, iudicatus sum, damnatus sum, I am dead, judged, and damned (Pet. Suetor. de Vit. Carth). Oh! let us but think with ourselves, though it pass all thought, what a screech the poor soul giveth when hurled into hell; there to suffer such tortures and torments as it shall never be able to avoid or abide!

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

Job 27:20. Terrors take hold on him, &c.— See Proverbs 10:25. The meaning of the high metaphors in these verses is, that he dieth, as most wicked men do, in the utmost terror, tumult, and confusion.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Terrors take hold on him, from the sense of his approaching death or judgment.

As waters; either,

1. In abundance, one terror after another. Or,

2. Violently and irresistibly, as a river breaking its banks, or a deluge of waters bears down and overwhelms all that is before it.

A tempest stealeth him away in the night; God’s wrath and judgment cometh upon him forcibly like a tempest, and withal secretly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

20.As waters — Suddenly, violently, continuously. “One terror after another, without intermission, as waters mix together in a flood.” — Rabbi Levi. “That man, then,” says Plato, “who discovers in his own life much iniquity, and, like children, constantly starts in his sleep, is full of terrors, and lives on with scarce a hope of the future.” See, further, his “Republic,” b. 1, ch. 5.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Job 27:20. Terrors take hold on him — From the sense of approaching death or judgment. As waters — As violently and irresistibly as a river breaking its banks, or a deluge of waters bears down all before it. A tempest stealeth, &c. — God’s wrath cometh upon him like a tempest, and withal unexpectedly like a thief in the night.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Night. Darkness often denotes disgrace and misery.

Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible

"As in verse 19, calamity calls him from his night chambers. The wicked man is haunted by terrors night and day (Isaiah 28:17; Hosea 5:10; Amos 5:24)" (Strauss p. 267).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Terrors

15:21; 18:11; 22:16; Psalms 18:4; 42:7; 69:14,15; Jonah 2:3

a tempest

20:23; 21:18; Exodus 12:29; 2 Kings 19:35; Daniel 5:30