They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
Parallel translations
- WEB How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
- BSB Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
- 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 1:4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
- Ps 83:13O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
- Ps 35:5Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
- Job 13:25Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
- Isa 17:13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
- Isa 29:5Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
- Jer 13:24Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
- Nah 1:10For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
- Isa 5:24Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Matt 3:12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
- Exod 15:7And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
- Hos 13:3Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
- Isa 40:24Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
- Isa 41:15–16Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
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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 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
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