God’s Word Translation
Job 21:12
12They sing with the tambourine and lyre, and they are happy with the music of the flute.
Job 21:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
- New International Version (NIV)They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre; they make merry to the sound of the pipe.
- English Standard Version (ESV)They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
- New King James Version (NKJV)They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
Context of Job 21:12
10Their bulls are fertile when they breed. Their cows give birth to calves and never miscarry. 11They send their little children out ⌞to play⌟ like a flock of lambs, and their children dance around. They sing with the tambourine and lyre, and they are happy with the music of the flute. 13They spend their days in happiness, and they go peacefully to the grave. 14But they say to God, ‘Leave us alone. We don’t want to know your ways.
Read all of Job 21Job 21:12 word by word
יִ֭שְׂאוּ כְּתֹ֣ף וְכִנּ֑וֹר וְ֝יִשְׂמְח֗וּ לְק֣וֹל עוּגָֽב׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 21:12
- Genesis 4:21His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the first person to play the harp and the flute.
- Genesis 31:27Why did you leave secretly and trick me? You didn’t even tell me you were leaving. I would have sent you on your way rejoicing, with songs accompanied by tambourines and lyres.
- Isaiah 5:12At their feasts there are lyres and harps, tambourines and flutes, and wine. Yet, they don’t pay attention to what the Lord is doing or see what his hands have done.
- Isaiah 22:13Instead, you will rejoice, celebrate, slaughter cattle, and butcher sheep. You will eat meat, drink wine, and say, “Let’s eat and drink because tomorrow we’re going to die.”
- Amos 6:4How horrible it will be for those who sleep on ivory beds. They sprawl out on their couches and eat lambs from their flocks and calves from their stalls.
Commentaries on Job 21:12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 12They take the timbrel and harp - ישאו yisu, they rise up or lift themselves up, probably alluding to the rural exercise of dancing. תף toph, which we translate timbrel, means a sort of drum, such as the tom-tom of the Asiatics. כנור kinnor may mean something of the harp kind. עוגב ugab, organ, means nothing like the instrument now called the organ, though thus translated both by the Septuagint and Vulgate; it probably means the syrinx, composed of several…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12They take the timbrel - They have instruments of cheerful music in their dwellings; and this is an evidence that they are not treated as the friends of Job had maintained. Instead of being, as they asserted, overwhelmed with calamity, they are actually happy. They have all that can make them cheerful, and their houses exhibit all that is usually the emblem of contentment and peace. Rosenmuller and Noyes suppose this to mean, “They sing to the timbrel and…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-16Verses 7-16 Job says, Remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always. Wherefore is it so? This is the day of God's patience; and, in some way or other, he makes use of the prosperity of the wicked to serve his own counsels, while it ripens them for ruin; but the chief reason is, because he will make it appear there is another world. These prospering sinners make light of God and religion, as if because they have so much…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1212. take--rather, "lift up the voice" (sing) to the note of [Umbreit]. timbrel--rather, "tambourine." organ--not the modern "organ," but the "pipe" (Ge 4:21). The first clause refers to stringed, the latter, to wind instruments; thus, with "the voice" all kinds of music are enumerated.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 21:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 21
- 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
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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