What Does Job 20:20 Mean?
He does not know quiet in his belly; he does not slip free with what he desired.
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
Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.THE KEY
What the belly desires cannot become the quietness the belly is seeking.
THE MEANING
The verse names a condition in which the belly never knows quiet and what is desired cannot be kept. It speaks to the present moment when appetite promises ease but leaves the inner life unsettled. The desired thing and the hoped-for rest are not the same.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that getting what is wanted guarantees inward ease. The verse sets desire beside a belly still without quiet.
THE ROOT
חֲמוּדוֹ
ḥămūdô
GROWS FROM
חמד
To desire, covet, or find desirable.
English “desired” can sound like a private thought, but this root also names what appears desirable, the thing that draws appetite toward itself. Here, that desire sits beside a belly that knows no ease: attraction does not itself satisfy or secure.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmad: To desire, covet, or find desirable.
חָמַד
The verb names the pull of wanting that underlies the desirable thing in the verse.
neḥmād: Desirable, pleasant, or coveted.
נֶחְמָד
The same root describes the tree “to be desired” in Genesis 3:6, linking desire with what catches the eye and draws appetite.
maḥmād: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This noun makes the root’s movement visible: desire can become the thing treated as precious.
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, or experience.
The verse says the belly does not know quietness, making rest something experienced inwardly rather than an abstract idea. The verb ties knowing to encounter: the desired thing may be present to the appetite, while ease remains unknown.
ALSO GROWS
yōdēaʿ: Knowing; one who knows.
יֹדֵעַ
This participle keeps the root’s sense of lived knowing, clarifying that quietness is something the belly would have to experience.
hōdîaʿ: To make known or inform.
הוֹדִיעַ
The causative form shows the root can also describe bringing something into another’s knowledge.
THE PATTERN
Desire aimed at acquisition cannot quiet the appetite that drives it.
Sheol and the place of perishing are never filled, and the eyes of man are never filled.The lover of silver is not filled with silver, and the lover of the crowd is not filled with the harvest. This too is vapor.And I will say to my living soul, Living soul, you have much good stored for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and be glad.THE THREAD
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.Genesis uses חמד (ḥ-m-d, desire or find desirable) for the tree “to be desired.” There, desire draws from what is seen toward what is eaten; Job places the desired thing beside a belly that cannot know quiet, exposing the gap between wanting and rest.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us