The Meaning of Job 20:14 Explained

Job 20:14

KJV: Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

YLT: His food in his bowels is turned, The bitterness of asps is in his heart.

Darby: His food is turned in his bowels; it is the gall of asps within him.

ASV: Yet his food in his bowels is turned, It is the gall of asps within him.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

[Yet] his meat  in his bowels  is turned,  [it is] the gall  of asps  within  him. 

What does Job 20:14 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 20:1-29 - "the Triumphing Of The Wicked"
Zophar is the man who least of all understood Job. The rebuke which Job had just administered, Job 19:28-29, has vexed him, so that he speaks with impatience.
The theme of Zophar's speech is the brevity of the prosperity of the wicked. He claims that this is an acknowledged principle, Job 20:4; then proceeds to show it by many striking metaphors.
Hypocrite, Job 20:5, is "godless" in the r.v.; and in describing the prosperity and speedy destruction of such, Job 20:5-11, he manifestly applies his words to Job. He refuses to pay any heed to Job's protestations of innocence. His theology was: God is righteous; he blesses and prospers the good, and destroys the wicked. Job was being destroyed; therefore Job was wicked. Thus often do we in our ignorance misunderstand God and cruelly misjudge man.
Zophar descends to more particulars. He describes the pleasure which the ungodly has in sin, Job 20:12-13; how his sin becomes his punishment, Job 20:14-22; and how terrible destruction at last visits him, Job 20:23-28, as his portion from God, Job 20:29. Though in all this Zophar was wrong in applying it to Job's case, and equally wrong in supposing that this life is the place of judgment for the wicked, yet it is important to remember that he was right in seeing a very real connection between sin and punishment. However sweet sin may be to the taste, it is sure to become bitter as the gall of asps ere long. The "pleasures of sin" are but for a season. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 20

1  Zophar shows the state and portion of the wicked

What do the individual words in Job 20:14 mean?

his food in his stomach [Yet] turns sour venom it becomes cobra within him
לַ֭חְמוֹ בְּמֵעָ֣יו נֶהְפָּ֑ךְ מְרוֹרַ֖ת פְּתָנִ֣ים בְּקִרְבּֽוֹ

לַ֭חְמוֹ  his  food 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: לֶחֶם  
Sense: bread, food, grain.
בְּמֵעָ֣יו  in  his  stomach 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, masculine plural construct, third person masculine singular
Root: מֵעֶה  
Sense: internal organs, inward parts, bowels, intestines, belly.
נֶהְפָּ֑ךְ  [Yet]  turns  sour 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: הָפַךְ  
Sense: to turn, overthrow, overturn.
מְרוֹרַ֖ת  venom 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct
Root: מְרֹרָה  
Sense: bitter thing, gall, poison.
פְּתָנִ֣ים  it  becomes  cobra 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural
Root: פֶּתֶן  
Sense: a snake, venomous serpent.
בְּקִרְבּֽוֹ  within  him 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: קֶרֶב  
Sense: midst, among, inner part, middle.