Bible Strands
Job 20:14
yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Zophar addresses Job in a poetic debate, describing the moment the wicked man's hoarded sustenance turns against him from within.
The words — מְרוֹרַת פְּתָנִים (me.ro.Rat pe.ta.Nim) translates literally to "venom of cobras," describing the physical transformation of the food inside the stomach.
The thread — The image of internalized poison runs through Deuteronomy 32:24 and reappears in Romans 3:13 as a marker of divine judgment on corrupt speech and action.
Why it lands — The text asserts that hoarded wealth or malice does not nourish but rots internally, requiring God to forcibly expel it rather than granting the wicked peace.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
Cross-references
- Romans 3:13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
- Deuteronomy 32:24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
- 2 Samuel 11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- 2 Samuel 12:10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
- Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
- Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Psalms 38:1 A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
- Psalms 51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
- Proverbs 1:31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Proverbs 23:20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.