Job
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Job Chapter 37 verse 20 Holy Bible

ASV Job 37:20

Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
read chapter 37 in ASV

BBE Job 37:20

How may he have knowledge of my desire for talk with him? or did any man ever say, May destruction come on me?
read chapter 37 in BBE

DARBY Job 37:20

Shall it be told him if I would speak? if a man [so] say, surely he shall be swallowed up.
read chapter 37 in DARBY

KJV Job 37:20

Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
read chapter 37 in KJV

WBT Job 37:20

Shall it be told him that I speak? If a man shall speak, surely he will be swallowed up.
read chapter 37 in WBT

WEB Job 37:20

Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
read chapter 37 in WEB

YLT Job 37:20

Is it declared to Him that I speak? If a man hath spoken, surely he is swallowed up.
read chapter 37 in YLT

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - Shall it be told him that I speak? rather, that I would speak (comp. Job 31:35). Job had expressed the wish that God would "hear him, and answer him." Elihu, intending to rebuke this presumption, yet shrinking from doing so directly, puts himself in Job's place, and asks, "Would it be fitting that I should demand to speak with God?" If not, it cannot be fitting that Job should do so. If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up. This is probably the true meaning, though another has been suggested by some commentators, who prefer to render, "Or should a man wish that he were destroyed?" (So Ewald, Dillmann, Canon Cook, and our Revisers.) If we adopt this rendering, we must understand Elihu as appending to his first rebuke a second, levelled against Job's desire to have his life ended.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) Be swallowed up.--The sense will vary, according as we understand this of God or of the sun. In the first case, it is a simple expression of awe at God's majesty: "Shall it be told Him that I would speak? If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up;" but unquestionably the sense is clearer if we understand it of the sun: "Shall it be told of him? Shall I, indeed, speak it? or hath any man ever ventured to say, in such a case, that the sun is swallowed up, extinguished?"