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While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
Job 1:18 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
  • BSB While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
  • NKJV While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
  • NASB While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
  • NLT While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

A final messenger comes while the others are still speaking. The worst loss is about to be announced.

Overview

The breathless overlap of messengers conveys disaster piling on disaster without pause. This last report concerns not property but Job's children, gathered at their eldest brother's feast. The verse heightens the dread before the climactic blow to Job's family.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 15

  • Job 1:4His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
  • Job 1:13It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
  • Job 27:14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
  • 2 Sam 13:28Absalom commanded his servants, saying, “Mark now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!”
  • Job 23:2“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
  • Ps 34:19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
  • Job 6:2–3“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
  • Isa 28:19As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”
  • Job 8:4If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
  • Jer 51:31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
  • Amos 4:6–11“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
  • Eccl 9:2All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.
  • Lam 1:12“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
  • Job 19:9–10He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
  • Job 16:14He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 1:18YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 1:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.