Job 20:23 [When] he is about to fill his belly, [God] shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain [it] upon him while he is eating.
Ver. 23. When he is about to fill his belly] It appeareth, by this expression, that it was belly timber wherein the wicked man placed his sufficiency, Job 20:22, his felicity, Si ventri bene sit, si lateri, saith the Epicure in Horace. If the belly may be filled, the body fitted, that is all that these Lurcones, these profligates, look after. Polyphemus knew no other god but his belly. There were belly gods in St Paul's time, such as of whom he could not speak with dry eyes, Philippians 3:18,19. Such are compared by Clement of Alexandria to the sea ass, that hath his heart in his belly. By others to the locust, the belly whereof is said to be joined to his mouth, and to end at his tail; to the fish called Blax, that is altogether unprofitable; and to rats and mice, good for nothing but to devour victuals. When therefore such a pamphagus is about to fill his belly and to pamper his paunch, or otherwise to gorge himself with the full messes of sin's dainties (as the viper lives on venomous things, the spider on aconite, the sow on swill, as Tartarians on carrion, holding them as dainty as other men do venison), then, saith Zophar,
God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him] Heb. He shall send forth, &c. He will no longer keep in his judgments in the chains of mercy, but give them their full forth upon this wicked oppressor; and that even very then, when he bids his heart make merry, and assures himself of unchangeable happiness. For,
He shall rain it upon him (that is, reveal it from heaven against him, Rom 1:18) while he is eating] Matthew 24:38. As it befell those cormorants, Numbers 11:33, and the old world, Luk 17:26-27 Sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; Vel ut pluvia quae sereno coelo inopinantes opprimit. Or as foul weather that comes unsent for, and oft unlooked for. The Vulgate rendereth it, And he shall rain his war upon him. But this Zophar setteth forth in the next verse, where he denounceth war and weapons.