You prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away.
Parallel translations
- WEB You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
- KJV Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
- BSB You forever overpower him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away.
- NASB “You forever overpower him and he departs; You change his appearance and send him away.
- NLT You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene. You disfigure them in death and send them away.
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 says God overpowers man and sends him away in death. Human strength cannot resist the call to depart.
Overview
Job describes God prevailing forever against man so that he departs, his face changed in death and sent away. No one can withstand mortality when God summons. The verse expresses the helplessness of humanity before death, the very enemy that Christ would conquer for all who are His.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Job 2:12When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
- Lam 4:8Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a stick.
- Job 14:14If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.
- Eccl 8:8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
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 14:20 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.