Job 36:20

20. The night Night is used figuratively for death, (Job 34:20; Job 34:25,) or for destruction heightened by night. Psalms 91:5. It may mean his own death, or the retributive death of others; Job having spoken of night in the latter sense, so as possibly to awaken on the part of Elihu suspicious of malevolence, though unjustly.

Cut off Same as in Job 5:26, and Psalms 102:24, (literally, “go up,”) and here spoken in general of removal by death to sheol, the world beneath them, (thus Conant and Carey,) or “beneath where the nations are,” (Hitzig;) but better, as in Job 40:12, in their place the place of their power and pride. The latter clause of the verse explains the former. In sublime language (Job 3:13-19) Job had expressed his desire that he might join the mighty dead; a description which must have profoundly impressed the youthful listener Elihu. He now replies, Not for the night, not “for the going up of the nations,” should Job long, (same as in Job 7:2;) they are going up fast enough, this “innumerable caravan that moves to that mysterious realm” of death, without Job’s panting to join them. Job’s time to “be gathered” will come soon enough without all this ado.