Job 11:20

But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope [shall be as] the giving up of the ghost.

Ver. 20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail] Contraries illustrate one another; and Zophar, willing his words should stick and work, thinks to leave a sting in Job's mind by telling him what he must trust to if he persist in his sin. And first, his eyes shall fail. The eye is a principal part of the body; and the failing of the eyes followeth either upon some sudden fright or upon much weeping, Lam 1:2 Psa 38:1-22 Psalms 88:1,18. (we read of one Faustus, son of Vortigem, king of Britain, who wept out his eyes), or too long looking after the same thing, or on the same object. Ut vehementius vellicet et fodiat inopinatum, ut putabat Iobi, animum (Merl., Speed.). The wicked, saith Zophar, shall never lach frights and griefs; they shall also look many a long look after help, but none shall appear, Lamentations 4:17; their hopes shall be fruitless, their projects successless.

And they shall not escape] Heb. Refuge or flight shall perish from them; miseries and mischiefs they shall never be able to avert or avoid. "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked," Psalms 32:10; and although they may think to get off or outrun them, yet it will not be, Amo 2:14 Psalms 142:4. Saul for instance: God hath forsaken me, saith he, and the Philistines are upon me, 1 Samuel 28:15 .

Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost] Broughton rendereth it, Their hope is nought but pangs of the soul. Of that which yieldeth but cold comfort we use to say, It comforteth a man like the pangs of death. The Vulgate hath it, Their hope shall be the abomination of their soul; the Tigurine, Their hope shall be most vain, even as a puff of breath, which presently passeth away, and cometh to nothing. Some Rabbis make this the sense, Their hope shall be as the snuffing of the breath; that is, they shall be so angry at their disappointments, that they shall vex and snuff at it. According to our translation, the wicked man's hope is set forth as utterly forlorn, and at an end for any good ever to befall him. The godly man's hope is lively, 1 Peter 1:8, and the righteous hath hope in his death, Proverbs 14:32 Cum expiro spero, when I die I have hope, is his motto; whereas the wicked's word when he dieth is, or may be, Spes et fortuna valete, Farewell hope and fortune, My life and hope endeth together. Spes eorum expiratione animae, so Tremellius rendereth the text. Death causeth in the wicked a total despair, and a most dreadful screek giveth the guilty soul, when it seeth itself launching into an infinite ocean of scalding lead, and considereth that therein it must swim naked for ever.