A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose.
Parallel translations
- WEB The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
- KJV The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.
- BSB The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.
- NKJV The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; Everyone shall follow him, As countless have gone before him.
- NASB “The clods of the valley will gently cover him; Moreover, all mankind will follow after him, While countless others go before him.
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
The wicked man rests peacefully in the earth, and great crowds follow his funeral as countless have before. He dies as part of the ordinary human procession, not under visible curse.
Overview
Job pictures the wicked finding the very soil sweet upon him and being followed to the grave by multitudes, an image of an honored, unexceptional death. Everyone shares this common end. Job's point is the absence of the public judgment his friends predict, leaving the resolution of justice to God alone.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Heb 9:27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
- Job 24:24They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
- Job 30:23For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.
- Job 3:22who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
- Job 17:16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”
- Eccl 1:4One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever.
- Gen 3:19By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
- 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.
- Eccl 12:7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Job 3:17–19There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.
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 21:33 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.