Job 20:19
 Job 20:19 
New International Version (©2011)
For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.

New Living Translation (©2007)
For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute. They foreclosed on their homes.

English Standard Version (©2001)
For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; He has seized a house which he has not built.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.

International Standard Version (©2012)
because he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he didn't build.

NET Bible (©2006)
For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; he has seized a house which he did not build.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
because he crushed and abandoned the poor. He has taken by force a house that he didn't build.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; because he has violently taken away a house which he built not;

American King James Version
Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; because he has violently taken away an house which he built not;

American Standard Version
For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor; He hath violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.

Darby Bible Translation
For he hath oppressed, hath forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away a house that he did not build.

English Revised Version
For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away an house, and he shall not build it up.

Webster's Bible Translation
Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.

World English Bible
For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

Young's Literal Translation
For he oppressed -- he forsook the poor, A house he hath taken violently away, And he doth not build it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:10-22 The miserable condition of the wicked man in this world is fully set forth. The lusts of the flesh are here called the sins of his youth. His hiding it and keeping it under his tongue, denotes concealment of his beloved lust, and delight therein. But He who knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it. The love of the world, and of the wealth of it, also is wickedness, and man sets his heart upon these. Also violence and injustice, these sins bring God's judgments upon nations and families. Observe the punishment of the wicked man for these things. Sin is turned into gall, than which nothing is more bitter; it will prove to him poison; so will all unlawful gains be. In his fulness he shall be in straits, through the anxieties of his own mind. To be led by the sanctifying grace of God to restore what was unjustly gotten, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy. But to be forced to restore by the horrors of a despairing conscience, as Judas was, has no benefit and comfort attending it.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor. These charges are now for the first time insinuated against Job; later on, they are openly brought by Eliphaz (Job 22:5-9). Job denies them categorically in Job 29:11-17. They seem to have been pure calumnies, without an atom of foundation. Because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not. Another calumny, doubtless. Something like it was insinuated by Eliphaz in Job 15:28.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor,.... Having oppressed, crushed, and broken the poor to pieces, he leaves them so without pity and compassion for them, and without giving them any relief; he first by oppression makes them poor, or however poorer still, and then leaves them in such circumstances; for this does not suppose that he once was a favourer of them, and afforded them assistance in their necessities, and afterwards forsook them; but rather, as Ben Gersom gives the sense, he does not leave the poor until he has oppressed and crushed them, and then he does; Mr. Broughton's reading of the words agrees with the former sense, "he oppresseth and leaveth poor":

because he hath violently taken away an house which he built not; an house which did not belong to him, he had no property in or right unto, which, as he had not bought, he had not built; and therefore could lay no rightful claim unto it, and yet this he took in a violent manner from the right owner of it, see Micah 2:2; or "and", or "but shall not build it" (a), or "buildeth it not"; he took it away with an intention to pull it down, and build a stately palace in the room of it; but either his substance was taken from him, or he taken away by death before he could finish it, and so either through neglect, or want of opportunity, or of money, did not what he thought to have done.

(a) "et non aedificabit eam", Pagninus, Montanus; "et non aedificat eam", Cocceius, Schultens; "non autem", Beza; "sed non", Schmidt, Michaelis.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. oppressed—whereas he ought to have espoused their cause (2Ch 16:10).

forsaken—left helpless.

house—thus leaving the poor without shelter (Isa 5:8; Mic 2:2).


Job 20:19 Parallel Commentaries

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Zophar: Triumph of the Wicked Short-lived
18That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. 19Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; because he has violently taken away an house which he built not; 20Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. …

Job 24:2 There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.
Job 31:16 "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
Job 35:9 "People cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.