His sons will seek the favor of the poor, for his own hands must return his wealth.
The instances here given of the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world are expressed with great fulness and fluency of language, and the same thing returned to again and repeated in other words. Let us therefore reduce the particulars to their proper heads, and observe, I. What his wickedness is for which he is punished. 1.
Commenting on Job 20:10-22
His children shall seek to please the poor,.... In this and some following verses the miserable state of a wicked man is described, and which begins with his children, who are often visited in wrath for their parents' sins, especially when they tread in their steps, and follow their example; and it is an affliction to parents to see their children in distress, and particularly...
seek to please--"Atone to the poor" (by restoring the property of which they had been robbed by the father) [DE WETTE]. Better than English Version, "The children" are reduced to the humiliating condition of "seeking the favor of those very poor," whom the father had oppressed. But UMBREIT translates as Margin. his hands--rather, "their (the children's) hands." their goods--the goods of the poor. Righteous retribution! (Exo 20:5).