New Living Translation
Job 21:18
18Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!
Job 21:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
- New International Version (NIV)How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?
- English Standard Version (ESV)That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
- New King James Version (NKJV)They are like straw before the wind, And like chaff that a storm carries away.
Context of Job 21:18
16(They think their prosperity is of their own doing, but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.) 17“Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. Do they ever have trouble? Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger? Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all! 19“‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’ But I say he should punish the ones who sin, so that they understand his judgment. 20Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.
Read all of Job 21Job 21:18 word by word
יִהְי֗וּ כְּתֶ֥בֶן לִפְנֵי־ר֑וּחַ וּ֝כְמֹ֗ץ גְּנָבַ֥תּוּ סוּפָֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 21:18
- Job 13:25Would you terrify a leaf blown by the wind? Would you chase dry straw?
- Exodus 15:7In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow those who rise against you. You unleash your blazing fury; it consumes them like straw.
- Psalms 1:4But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
- Psalms 35:5Blow them away like chaff in the wind— a wind sent by the angel of the Lord.
- Psalms 83:13O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind!
- Isaiah 5:24Therefore, just as fire licks up stubble and dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will rot and their flowers wither. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies; they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 17:13But though they thunder like breakers on a beach, God will silence them, and they will run away. They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind, like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm.
- Isaiah 29:5“But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust. Your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind. Suddenly, in an instant,
- Isaiah 40:24They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither. The wind carries them off like chaff.
- Isaiah 41:15You will be a new threshing instrument with many sharp teeth. You will tear your enemies apart, making chaff of mountains.
- Jeremiah 13:24“I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert winds.
- Hosea 13:3Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist, like dew in the morning sun, like chaff blown by the wind, like smoke from a chimney.
- Nahum 1:10His enemies, tangled like thornbushes and staggering like drunks, will be burned up like dry stubble in a field.
- Matthew 3:12He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”
Commentaries on Job 21:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18They are as stubble before the wind - "His fan is in his hand; he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, but shall be like the chaff which the wind driveth away." Were not this a common thought, I should have supposed that the author of this book borrowed it from Psalm 1:4. The original signifies that they shall be carried away by a furious storm; and…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 18They are as stubble before the wind - According to the interpretation proposed of the previous verse, this may be read as a question, “How often is it that the wicked are made like stubble? You say that God deals with people exactly according to their characters, and that the wicked are certainly subjected to calamities; but how often does this, in fact, occur? Is it a uniform law? Do they not, in fact, live in prosperity, and arrive at a good old age?”…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 17-26Verses 17-26 Job had described the prosperity of wicked people; in these verses he opposes this to what his friends had maintained about their certain ruin in this life. He reconciles this to the holiness and justice of God. Even while they prosper thus, they are light and worthless, of no account with God, or with wise men. In the height of their pomp and power, there is but a step between them and ruin. Job refers the difference Providence makes between…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1818. Job alludes to a like sentiment of Bildad (Job 18:18), using his own previous words (Job 13:25).Read the comment
Topics related to Job 21:18
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
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