Job 36:20

Job 36:20 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
• New International Version (NIV)Do not long for the night, to drag people away from their homes.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Do not desire the night, When people are cut off in their place.
• New Living Translation (NLT)Do not long for the cover of night, for that is when people will be destroyed.

Context of Job 36:20

18Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. 19Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength? Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place. 21Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction. 22Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?

Job 36:20 word by word

אַל־תִּשְׁאַ֥ף הַלָּ֑יְלָה לַעֲל֖וֹת עַמִּ֣ים תַּחְתָּֽם׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Desireשָׁאַףshâ'aph · to long forH7602
• not the nightלַ֫יְלָהlayil lêyl layelâh · nightH3915
• when peopleעַם‛am · peopleH5971
• are cut offעָלָה‛âlâh · to ascend: riseH5927

Cross-references for Job 36:20

• Job 3:20"Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
• Job 6:9that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
• Job 7:15so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.
• Job 14:13Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
• Job 17:13If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,
• Exodus 12:29At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
• 2 Kings 19:35And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
• Proverbs 14:32The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing, but the righteous finds refuge in his death.
• Ecclesiastes 11:3If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
• Daniel 5:30That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed.
• Luke 12:20But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
• Acts 1:25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."
• 1 Thessalonians 5:2For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Commentaries on Job 36:20

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 20Desire not the night - Thou hast wished for death; (here called night); desire it not; leave that with God. If he hear thee, and send death, thou mayest be cut off in a way at which thy soul would shudder.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 20Desire not the night - That is, evidently, “the night of death.” The darkness of the night is an emblem of death, and it is not uncommon to speak of death in this manner; see John 9:4, “The night cometh, when no man can work.” Elihu seems to have supposed that Job might have looked forward to death as to a time of release; that so far from “dreading” what he had said would come, that God would cut him off at a stroke, it might be the very thing which he…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 15-23Verses 15-23 Elihu shows that Job caused the continuance of his own trouble. He cautions him not to persist in frowardness. Even good men need to be kept to their duty by the fear of God's wrath; the wisest and best have enough in them to deserve his stroke. Let not Job continue his unjust quarrel with God and his providence. And let us never dare to think favourably of sin, never indulge it, nor allow ourselves in it. Elihu thinks Job needed this…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2020. Desire--pant for. Job had wished for death (Job 3:3-9, &c.). night--(Joh 9:4). when--rather, "whereby." cut off--literally, "ascend," as the corn cut and lifted upon the wagon or stack (Job 36:26); so "cut off," "disappear." in their place--literally, "under themselves"; so, without moving from their place, on the spot, suddenly (Job 40:12) [Maurer]. Umbreit's translation: "To ascend (which is really, as thou wilt find to thy cost, to descend) to the…Read the comment

Topics related to Job 36:20

• Death
• Watchfulness

In the dictionaries

• Ascribe
• Elihu
• Esteem
• Hang
• God

Commentaries on Job 36

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings