But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
Parallel translations
- WEB They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
- KJV They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
- NKJV They lie down alike in the dust, And worms cover them.
- NASB “Together they lie down in the dust, And maggots cover them.
- NLT But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.
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
Both the prosperous and the miserable end up the same in death, lying in the dust covered by worms. Death levels all earthly distinctions.
Overview
Job concludes his contrast by noting the great equalizer: both kinds of people share the same grave. This echoes Ecclesiastes 9:2-3. Yet Scripture does not leave us there; the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor 15:20-22) breaks death's apparent finality, promising that what is sown in the dust will be raised, and that God's justice extends beyond the grave.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Eccl 9:2It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.
- Isa 14:11Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.
- Job 20:11The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
- Job 3:18–19The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
- Ps 49:14Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.
- Job 19:26Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
- Job 24:20The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken tree.
- Job 17:14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
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 21:26 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.