Albert Barnes Commentary Job 20:11

"His bones are full of his youth, But it shall lie down with him in the dust." — Job 20:11 (ASV)

His bones are full of the sin of his youth - The words “of the sin” in our common translation are supplied by the translators. Gesenius and Noyes suppose that the Hebrew means, “His bones are full of youth;” that is, full of vigor and strength. The idea, according to this, would be that he would be cut off in the fullness of his strength. Dr. Good renders it forcibly:

“His secret lusts shall follow his bones,
Yea, they shall press upon him in the dust.”

The Vulgate renders it, “His bones are full of the sins of his youth.” The Septuagint, “His bones are full of his youth.” The Chaldee Paraphrase, “His bones are full of his strength.” The Hebrew literally is, “His bones are full of his secret things” (עלוּמו ‛âlûmāŷ)—referring, as I suppose, to the “secret, long-cherished” faults of his life: the corrupt propensities and desires of his soul that had become seated in his very nature.

These faults would cling to him, leaving a withering influence on his whole system in later years. The effect is what is so often seen when vices corrupt the very physical frame, and the results are seen long into the future. This effect would be evident in the diseases they engendered in his system and in the certainty with which they would bring him down to the grave. The Syriac renders it “marrow,” as if the idea were that he would die full of vigor and strength.

But the sense is rather that his secret lusts would work his certain ruin.

Which shall lie down with him - This means that the results of his secret sins shall lie down with him in the grave. He will never get rid of them. He has indulged in his sins for so long, they have so thoroughly pervaded his nature, and he so delights to cherish them, that they will accompany him to the tomb.

There is truth in this representation. Wicked people often indulge in secret sin for so long that it seems to pervade their whole system. Nothing will remove it; and it lives and acts until the body is committed to the dust, and the soul sinks ruined into hell.