The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
Parallel translations
- KJV The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
- BSB as water wears away the stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man’s hope.
- NKJV As water wears away stones, And as torrents wash away the soil of the earth; So You destroy the hope of man.
- NASB Water wears away stones, Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth; So You destroy a man’s hope.
- NLT as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people’s hope.
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
As water wears away stone, Job says God wears away human hope. He laments that hope erodes under affliction.
Overview
Job notes how waters wear stones and torrents wash away soil, then concludes, 'so you destroy the hope of man.' The slow, irresistible erosion of nature mirrors how his hope feels worn down. Spoken in the depths of grief, it reflects despair rather than the final word, for true hope in God cannot be ultimately destroyed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- Job 19:10He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
- Job 27:8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Gen 7:21–23All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
- Ps 30:6–7As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”
- Luke 12:19–20I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”’
- Ezek 37:11Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
- Gen 6:17I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 14:19 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.