What is the meaning of Job 20:8? He will fly away like a dream “ He will fly away like a dream ” (Job 20:8a) • Dreams feel real for a moment, yet vanish at dawn. The verse pictures the wicked man’s prosperity evaporating just as suddenly and completely. • Scripture often uses the dream motif to stress how quickly earthly security dissolves. Psalm 73:20 says, “When You arise, O Lord, You will despise their image.” In Isaiah 29:7-8 the armies attacking Jerusalem disappear “as a dream in the night.” • God’s justice operates in real time; what looks solid to sinful man is as fragile as a night’s sleep. Never to be found “ …never to be found ” (Job 20:8b) • Not only does the wicked person’s success vanish; any trace of it is erased. • Psalm 37:10 affirms, “Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.” • Proverbs 12:7 echoes the same finality: “The wicked are overthrown and perish, but the house of the righteous will stand.” • This is no poetic exaggeration but a literal outcome promised by a God who keeps His word. He will be chased away “ …he will be chased away ” (Job 20:8c) • Judgment is active, not passive. The sinner does not merely drift off; he is driven away by the hand of God. • Job 27:22 paints the picture: “It hurls itself against him without mercy, as he flees headlong from its power.” • Proverbs 10:25 adds, “When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more.” • The chase underlines accountability. No one outruns divine retribution. Like a vision in the night “ …like a vision in the night.” (Job 20:8d) • Visions at night vanish the moment we wake. The text doubles the image to stress certainty: dream and night vision both disappear. • Psalm 90:5 describes human life similarly: “In the morning they are like grass that springs up.” • God’s Word consistently teaches that ungodly gain is temporary, while righteousness endures (Proverbs 10:30). • The contrast invites believers to anchor hope not in fleeting success but in God’s unchanging promises. summary Job 20:8 pictures the wicked person’s seeming security dissolving as quickly and completely as a nighttime dream. His success is fleeting, his memory erased, and his downfall pursued by God Himself. The verse, reinforced throughout Scripture, reminds us that only what is rooted in the Lord lasts, while every sinful refuge is destined to vanish without a trace. |
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