Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
Parallel translations
- WEB How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
- KJV They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
- NKJV They are like straw before the wind, And like chaff that a storm carries away.
- NASB “Are they as straw before the wind, And like chaff which the storm carries away?
- NLT Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!
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 continues questioning how often the wicked are really swept away like straw before the wind. He doubts the friends' confident picture of swift judgment.
Overview
The images of stubble and chaff scattered by the storm are common biblical pictures of the wicked's ultimate end (Ps 1:4; Ps 83:13). Job's point is about timing: such judgment is not as immediate or universal in this life as his friends insist. The certainty of final judgment remains, but its earthly visibility is partial.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 1:4Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.
- Ps 83:13Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.
- Ps 35:5May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the LORD drives them away.
- Job 13:25Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?
- Isa 17:13The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
- Isa 29:5But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,
- Jer 13:24“I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.
- Nah 1:10For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
- Isa 5:24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- Exod 15:7You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.
- Hos 13:3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
- Isa 40:24No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.
- Isa 41:15–16Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
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 21:18 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.