The one at ease scorns misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
- KJV He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
- NKJV A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; It is made ready for those whose feet slip.
- NASB “He who is at ease holds disaster in contempt, As prepared for those whose feet slip.
- NLT People who are at ease mock those in trouble. They give a push to people who are stumbling.
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
Job observes that those at ease despise misfortune and are ready to push the stumbling. He exposes the callousness of the comfortable.
Overview
Job notes how people secure in prosperity look down on the suffering, ready to give the slipping a further shove. He indicts the smug contempt his friends embody. The verse rebukes hard-heartedness toward sufferers and calls God's people instead to compassion, after the example of Christ who came to the broken and bruised (Isaiah 42:3; Galatians 6:1-2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 17:5My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.
- Prov 13:9The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is extinguished.
- Matt 25:8The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
- Prov 20:20Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.
- Job 6:5Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass, or an ox low over its fodder?
- Job 18:5Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.
- Amos 6:1–6Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.
- Job 16:4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Ps 123:3–4Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.
- Luke 12:19Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.
- Luke 16:19–20Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
- Ps 94:18If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O LORD, supports me.
- Deut 32:35Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 12:5 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
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