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Selected Verse: Job 20:12 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 20:12	Strong Concordance	Though wickedness [07451] be sweet [04985] in his mouth [06310], though he hide [03582] it under his tongue [03956];
	King James	Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
be--"taste sweet." Sin's fascination is like poison sweet to the taste, but at last deadly to the vital organs (Pro 20:17; Job 9:17-18). hide . . . tongue--seek to prolong the enjoyment by keeping the sweet morsel long in the mouth (so Job 20:13).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

be--"taste sweet." Sin's fascination is like poison sweet to the taste, but at last deadly to the vital organs (Pro 20:17; Job 9:17-18).

hide . . . tongue--seek to prolong the enjoyment by keeping the sweet morsel long in the mouth (so Job 20:13).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - Though he has pleasure in committing it, as he has in pleasant food. The sense of this and the following verses is, that though a man may have pleasure in indulgence in sin, and may find happiness of a certain kind in it, yet that the consequences will be bitter - as if the food which he ate should become like gall, and he should cast it up with loathing. There are many sins which, from the laws of our nature, are attended with a kind of pleasure. Such, for illustration, are the sins of gluttony and of intemperance in drinking; the sins of ambition and vanity; the sins of amusement and of fashionable life. To such we give the name of "pleasures." We do not speak of them as "happiness." That is a word which would not express their nature. It denotes rather substantial, solid, permanent joy - such joy as the "pleasures of sin for a season" do not furnish. It is this temporary "pleasure" which the lovers of vanity, fashion and dress, seek, and which, it cannot be denied, they often find. As long ago as the time of Zophar, it was admitted that such pleasure might be found in some forms of sinful indulgence and yet even in his time that was seen, which all subsequent observation has proved true, that such indulgence must lead to bitter results. Though he hide it under his tongue - It is from this passage, probably, that we have derived the phrase, "to roll sin as a sweet morsel under the tongue," which is often quoted as if it were a part of Scripture. The "meaning" here is, that a man would find pleasure in sin, and would seek to prolong it, as one does the pleasure of eating that which is grateful to the palate by holding it long in the mouth, or by placing it under the tongue.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - Though he has pleasure in committing it, as he has in pleasant food. The sense of this and the following verses is, that though a man may have pleasure in indulgence in sin, and may find happiness of a certain kind in it, yet that the consequences will be bitter - as if the food which he ate should become like gall, and he should cast it up with loathing. There are many sins which, from the laws of our nature, are attended with a kind of pleasure. Such, for illustration, are the sins of gluttony and of intemperance in drinking; the sins of ambition and vanity; the sins of amusement and of fashionable life. To such we give the name of "pleasures." We do not speak of them as "happiness." That is a word which would not express their nature. It denotes rather substantial, solid, permanent joy - such joy as the "pleasures of sin for a season" do not furnish. It is this temporary "pleasure" which the lovers of vanity, fashion and dress, seek, and which, it cannot be denied, they often find. As long ago as the time of Zophar, it was admitted that such pleasure might be found in some forms of sinful indulgence and yet even in his time that was seen, which all subsequent observation has proved true, that such indulgence must lead to bitter results.

Though he hide it under his tongue - It is from this passage, probably, that we have derived the phrase, "to roll sin as a sweet morsel under the tongue," which is often quoted as if it were a part of Scripture. The "meaning" here is, that a man would find pleasure in sin, and would seek to prolong it, as one does the pleasure of eating that which is grateful to the palate by holding it long in the mouth, or by placing it under the tongue.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
12 If wickedness tasted sweet in his mouth, He hid it under his tongue; 13 He carefully cherished it and did not let it go, And retained it in his palate: 14 His bread is now changed in his bowels, It is the gall of vipers within him. 15 He hath swallowed down riches and now he spitteth them out, God shall drive them out of his belly. 16 He sucked in the poison of vipers, The tongue of the adder slayeth him. The evil-doer is, in Job 20:12, likened to an epicure; he keeps hold of wickedness as long as possible, like a delicate morsel that is retained in the mouth (Renan: comme un bonbon qu'on laisse fondre dans la bouche), and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. המתּיק, to make sweet, has here the intransitive signification dulcescere, Ew. 122, c. הכחיד, to remove from sight, signifies elsewhere to destroy, here to conceal (as the Piel, Job 6:10; Job 15:18). חמל, to spare, is construed with על, which is usual with verbs of covering and protecting. The conclusion of the hypothetical antecedent clauses begins with Job 20:14; the perf. נהפּך (with Kametz by Athnach) describes the suddenness of the change; the מרורת which follows is not equivalent to למרורת (Luther: His food shall be turned to adder's gall in his body), but Job 20:14 expresses the result of the change in a substantival clause. The bitter and poisonous are synonymous in the ancient languages; hence we find the meanings poison and gall (Job 20:25) in מררה, and ראשׁ signifies both a poisonous plant which is known by its bitterness, and the poison of plants like to the poison of serpents (Job 20:16; Deu 32:33). חיל (Job 20:15) is property, without the accompanying notion of forcible acquisition (Hirz.), which, on the contrary, is indicated by the בּלע. The following fut. consec. is here not aor., but expressive of the inevitable result which the performance of an act assuredly brings: he must vomit back the property which he has swallowed down; God casts it out of his belly, i.e., (which is implied in בּלע, expellere) forcibly, and therefore as by the pains of colic. The lxx, according to whose taste the mention of God here was contrary to decorum, trans. ἐξ οἰκίας (read κοιλίας, according to Cod. Alex.) αὐτοῦ ἐξελκύσει αὐτὸν ἄγγελος (Theod. δυνάστης). The perf., Job 20:15, is in Job 20:16 changed into the imperf. fut. יינק, which more strongly represents the past action as that which has gone before what is now described; and the ασυνδέτως, fut. which follows, describes the consequence which is necessarily and directly involved in it. Psa 140:4 may be compared with Job 20:16, Pro 23:32 with Job 20:16. He who sucked in the poison of low desire with a relish, will meet his punishment in that in which he sinned: he is destroyed by the poisonous deadly bite of the serpent, for the punishment of sin is fundamentally nothing but the nature of sin itself brought fully out.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

12 If wickedness tasted sweet in his mouth,

He hid it under his tongue;

13 He carefully cherished it and did not let it go,

And retained it in his palate:

14 His bread is now changed in his bowels,

It is the gall of vipers within him.

15 He hath swallowed down riches and now he spitteth them out,

God shall drive them out of his belly.

16 He sucked in the poison of vipers,

The tongue of the adder slayeth him.

The evil-doer is, in Job 20:12, likened to an epicure; he keeps hold of wickedness as long as possible, like a delicate morsel that is retained in the mouth (Renan: comme un bonbon qu'on laisse fondre dans la bouche), and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. המתּיק, to make sweet, has here the intransitive signification dulcescere, Ew. 122, c. הכחיד, to remove from sight, signifies elsewhere to destroy, here to conceal (as the Piel, Job 6:10; Job 15:18). חמל, to spare, is construed with על, which is usual with verbs of covering and protecting. The conclusion of the hypothetical antecedent clauses begins with Job 20:14; the perf. נהפּך (with Kametz by Athnach) describes the suddenness of the change; the מרורת which follows is not equivalent to למרורת (Luther: His food shall be turned to adder's gall in his body), but Job 20:14 expresses the result of the change in a substantival clause. The bitter and poisonous are synonymous in the ancient languages; hence we find the meanings poison and gall (Job 20:25) in מררה, and ראשׁ signifies both a poisonous plant which is known by its bitterness, and the poison of plants like to the poison of serpents (Job 20:16; Deu 32:33). חיל (Job 20:15) is property, without the accompanying notion of forcible acquisition (Hirz.), which, on the contrary, is indicated by the בּלע. The following fut. consec. is here not aor., but expressive of the inevitable result which the performance of an act assuredly brings: he must vomit back the property which he has swallowed down; God casts it out of his belly, i.e., (which is implied in בּלע, expellere) forcibly, and therefore as by the pains of colic. The lxx, according to whose taste the mention of God here was contrary to decorum, trans. ἐξ οἰκίας (read κοιλίας, according to Cod. Alex.) αὐτοῦ ἐξελκύσει αὐτὸν ἄγγελος (Theod. δυνάστης). The perf., Job 20:15, is in Job 20:16 changed into the imperf. fut. יינק, which more strongly represents the past action as that which has gone before what is now described; and the ασυνδέτως, fut. which follows, describes the consequence which is necessarily and directly involved in it. Psa 140:4 may be compared with Job 20:16, Pro 23:32 with Job 20:16. He who sucked in the poison of low desire with a relish, will meet his punishment in that in which he sinned: he is destroyed by the poisonous deadly bite of the serpent, for the punishment of sin is fundamentally nothing but the nature of sin itself brought fully out.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Mouth - To his taste; though it greatly please him for the present. Hide - As an epicure doth a sweet morsel, which he keeps and rolls about his mouth, that he may longer enjoy the pleasure of it.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

Mouth - To his taste; though it greatly please him for the present. Hide - As an epicure doth a sweet morsel, which he keeps and rolls about his mouth, that he may longer enjoy the pleasure of it.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - This seems to refer to the secret sins mentioned above. Hide it under his tongue - This and the four following verses contain an allegory; and the reference is to a man who, instead of taking wholesome food, takes what is poisonous, and is so delighted with it because it is sweet, that he rolls it under his tongue, and will scarcely let it down into his stomach, he is so delighted with the taste; "he spares it, and forsakes it not, but keeps it still within his mouth," Job 20:13. "But when he swallows it, it is turned to the gall of asps within him," Job 20:14, which shall corrode and torture his bowels.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - This seems to refer to the secret sins mentioned above.

Hide it under his tongue - This and the four following verses contain an allegory; and the reference is to a man who, instead of taking wholesome food, takes what is poisonous, and is so delighted with it because it is sweet, that he rolls it under his tongue, and will scarcely let it down into his stomach, he is so delighted with the taste; "he spares it, and forsakes it not, but keeps it still within his mouth," Job 20:13. "But when he swallows it, it is turned to the gall of asps within him," Job 20:14, which shall corrode and torture his bowels.

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