In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
Parallel translations
- KJV He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
- BSB The one at ease scorns misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
- 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 fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.
- Prov 13:9The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.
- Matt 25:8The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
- Prov 20:20Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.
- Job 6:5Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?
- Job 18:5“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.
- Amos 6:1–6Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
- Job 16:4I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,
- Ps 123:3–4Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.
- Luke 12:19I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”’
- Jer 13:16Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness.
- Luke 16:19–20“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.
- Ps 94:18When I said, “My foot is slipping!” Your loving kindness, Yahweh, held me up.
- Deut 32:35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
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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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