20:16 He sucks the poison 1 of serpents; 2
the fangs 3 of a viper 4 kill him.
1 tn The word is a homonym for the word for “head,” which has led to some confusion in the early versions.
2 sn To take the possessions of another person is hereby compared to sucking poison from a serpent – it will kill eventually.
3 tn Heb “tongue.”
4 tn Some have thought this verse is a gloss on v. 14 and should be deleted. But the word for “viper” (אֶפְעֶה, ’ef’eh) is a rare word, occurring only here and in Isa 30:6 and 59:5. It is unlikely that a rarer word would be used in a gloss. But the point is similar to v. 14 – the wealth that was greedily sucked in by the wicked proves to be their undoing. Either this is totally irrelevant to Job’s case, a general discussion, or the man is raising questions about how Job got his wealth.