Job 20:4-7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Knowest thou not, &c.— The latter clause of Job 20:4 might as well have been rendered, Since Adam was placed on the earth. There is no reason to doubt but that this passage refers to the fall, and the first sin of man; the date agrees; for the knowledge here taught is said to arise from facts as old as the first placing man upon earth: the sudden punishment of the iniquity corresponds to the Mosaic account; the triumphing of the wicked is short, his joy but for a moment. Above all, the nature of the crime, and of the punishment here described, are strong presumptions on this side: Adam's ambition was, to be like God, and he had the tempter's word to assure him that he should be so: how aptly is this ambition described in the passage before us: Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds! that is, as the Syriac and Arabic versions render the verse, "Though in his pride he ascend up to heaven, yet shall he perish for ever." Adam's punishment was death: To dust shalt thou return. The punishment, as described in this book, is, He shall perish for ever: but how, or in what manner? Why, like his own dung; i.e. by returning to earth again. That the Chaldee paraphrast understood this whole passage to relate to the fall, seems evident by his expression in the 4th verse, where he takes notice, of the accuser or tempter, as well as of the offenders: Gaudium impiorum finitur cito, et laetitia delatoris ad momentum; the joy of the impious finishes quickly; and the gladness of the accuser at the moment. What delator, or accuser, do we read of at the time of Adam's being placed upon the earth, except the tempter? to whom the name of the adversary, or accuser, was afterwards appropriated; and it is the character, in this very book, of the spirit permitted to plague and torment Job: which is one evidence, by the bye, that the paraphrast understood the same person to have been concerned in both cases, in the tempting of Adam, and in the tormenting of Job. Our own version, the Vulgate, and Montanus's, agree in one sense; the joy of the HYPOCRITE is but for a moment: but who is this hypocrite, appearing at the very first placing upon earth? It was neither Eve nor Adam: they were bold and hardy, and distrustful of God, but showed no guile or hypocrisy in the whole transaction. But the tempter's part was all hypocrisy: he shewed great concern for the prosperity of those whom he meant to destroy, and well deserves this character; and the Chaldee paraphrast has reason for fixing it upon him. See Bishop Sherlock's Use and Intent of Prophesy, Dissert. 2: p. 209.