He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
Ver. 17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods] That is, that plenty and abundance of all good things that cometh in to the righteous, Velut confertim, certatim, et affatim, a confluence of all manner of comforts and contentments (Mercer). These the oppressor shall have none of; for being insatiable and vexed with the furies of an evil conscience, they enjoy not anything, though they abound with all things, being worse than tantalized; and if after his fall he seek to recruit himself, he shall never be able to effect it. He shall not see the rivers, &c. The Seventy, and others after them, render it by an elegant apostrophe, Ne, specter rivos, Let him never look after the rivers, &c., for it will never be. He may please himself in hope and expectation of a better condition, but God will surely cross him. For his hoped for riches he shall have poverty, for pleasure pain, for health sickness, for nourishment poison, for dignity disgrace, for the favour of God his wrath and hatred, for life destruction. A further account of the wicked man's non-enjoyment of what he hath wrongfully wrested from others Zophar giveth us in the next verse.