Ayub 20:20

20:20 For he knows no satisfaction in his appetite; ¹ 

he does not let anything he desires ²  escape. ³ 

Yehezkiel 7:19

7:19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. ⁴  Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. ⁵  They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth ⁶  was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. ⁷ 

[20:20]  ¹ tn Heb “belly,” which represents his cravings, his desires and appetites. The “satisfaction” is actually the word for “quiet; peace; calmness; ease.” He was driven by greedy desires, or he felt and displayed an insatiable greed.

[20:20]  ² tn The verb is the passive participle of the verb חָמַד (khamad) which is one of the words for “covet; desire.” This person is controlled by his desires; there is no escape. He is a slave.

[20:20]  ³ tn The verb is difficult to translate in this line. It basically means “to cause to escape; to rescue.” Some translate this verb as “it is impossible to escape”; this may work, but is uncertain. Others translate the verb in the sense of saving something else: N. Sarna says, “Of his most cherished possessions he shall save nothing” (“The Interchange of the Preposition bet and min in Biblical Hebrew,” JBL 78 [1959]: 315-16). The RSV has “he will save nothing in which he delights”; NIV has “he cannot save himself by his treasure.”

[7:19]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.

[7:19]  ⁵ sn Compare Zeph 1:18.

[7:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).

[7:19]  ⁷ tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).