What Does Job 20:18 Mean?
He returns what he toiled for, and does not swallow it down; the exchange is according to his wealth, and he does not ring with joy in it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.THE KEY
What is gained here cannot stay swallowed: it returns from the holder’s grasp in proportion to what was gained.
THE MEANING
The verse shows labor and possession coming apart: what a person works to acquire returns out of their hands in proportion to its substance. Holding the gain does not guarantee joy in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that working for something guarantees lasting ownership or joy in possessing it.
THE ROOT
יָשִׁיב
yashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
turn back, return
“returns” in this verse is yashiv. The verb translated “restore” means to make something return. The verse pictures possession reversing: what was gathered is sent back out of the holder’s grasp.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: return, turn back
שׁוּב
This root makes the motion inside “restore” visible: something goes back to where it came from.
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related word carries the same return-motion, illuminating restoration as a reversal of possession.
יִבְלָע
yivla
GROWS FROM
בָּלַע
swallow, engulf, devour
“swallow it down” in this verse is yivla. The root gives “swallow” the sense of taking something down and consuming it. The gain cannot be absorbed into secure possession; it returns outward instead.
ALSO GROWS
bala: swallow, devour
בָּלַע
The verb names the attempted consumption that the verse says does not happen.
beliah: swallowing, engulfment
בְּלִיעָה
This related noun extends the image from taking something in to being consumed or engulfed by it.
יָגַע
yaga
GROWS FROM
יָגַע
toil, grow weary from exertion
“toiled for” in this verse is yaga. This root carries the cost of effort and weariness, not only the fact of acquiring something. The verse sets that toil beside the return, showing that effort does not ensure lasting possession or enjoyment.
ALSO GROWS
yegiah: toil, labor
יְגִיעָה
The related noun keeps the effort itself in view as the verse describes what happens to the gain.
yagea: weary, exhausted
יָגֵעַ
This related form shows the weariness contained in the labor whose result does not remain with its holder.
THE PATTERN
What is accumulated does not guarantee lasting possession or enjoyment.
There is a sickening harm I have seen under the sun, wealth guarded for its owners to their harm.Do not store up for yourselves treasures upon the ground, where moth and rust gnaw them out of sight, and where thieves dig through and steal.But God said to him, Mindless one, this night your living soul will be demanded back from you. Then whose will those things be that you have made ready?THE THREAD
Then it shall be, when he has missed the mark and is guilty, that he shall turn back what he tore away by force, or what he pressed, or what was placed in his hand to keep, or the thing that has lost its way, which he finds.Job uses the same שׁוּב root in “restore” that Leviticus uses for returning what was taken. The shared word makes the reversal concrete: what is held can become something that must be handed back.
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