When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
Read Chapter 20
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
May. Hebrew, "And when he shall be about to fill his belly "like king Baltassar, death shall hurry him away. (Calmet)
Rain. Septuagint, "hurl sorrows upon him "(Haydock) by an untimely death, followed with eternal hunger and thirst. Thus was treat the rich glutton, Luke xvi. 22. (Calmet)
29. The Lord ‘rains His war’ upon this hypocrite, when he smites his deeds with the swords of His judgments. Thus for God to ‘rain war,’ is His pressing hard to destruction the life of the wicked man by His strict sentences from on high. God ‘raining war’ is His smiting the hearts that are lifted up against Himself, and His wounding the blasted soul with the darts of His judgments, as with a kind of thickening drops of rain, that when he is now carried off to judgment, one while he should remind himself how he coveted wickedly, and more wickedly set himself to heap together the things he coveted, at another time grieve that he is parted from the things thus heaped together, and one day feel the very fire of retribution, which, that he might not live well, he was too indifferent to foresee.
Perhaps not even his goods will flourish, but they will become corrupted while still in bloom. In fact, if he appears to be full and abundant in all goods, then every need and affliction will assault him, so that he fills his belly, that is, fills his soul with every pain. “Let God send upon him the fury of wrath; let him bring a torrent of pains upon him.” God, by striking him with the most severe punishment, will bury him in pains as under a snowstorm. - "Commentary on Job 20.21–23"
