Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, for emptiness will be his reward.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
- KJV Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
- NKJV Let him not trust in futile things, deceiving himself, For futility will be his reward.
- NASB “Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For his reward will be emptiness.
- NLT Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches, for emptiness will be their only reward.
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
Eliphaz warns against trusting in emptiness, for emptiness will be the deceived man's only reward. Self-deception leads to hollow ruin.
Overview
He cautions that the wicked who relies on vanity deceives himself and reaps nothing but vanity. This is genuine wisdom: trusting in what is empty yields emptiness (Jeremiah 2:5). The verse rightly exposes the folly of false confidence, even as it wrongly insinuates that Job's faith rests on such empty ground rather than on the living God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 59:4No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
- Gal 6:3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- Ps 62:10Place no trust in extortion, or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
- Hos 8:7For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Gal 6:7–8Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Job 12:16True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His.
- Eph 5:6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
- Jonah 2:8Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
- Job 4:8As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Prov 22:8He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- Isa 44:20He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
- Isa 17:10–11For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines—
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 15:31 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.