The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow.
Parallel translations
- WEB Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
- KJV Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.
- BSB As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
- NKJV As drought and heat consume the snow waters, So the grave consumes those who have sinned.
- NASB “Dryness and heat snatch away the snow waters, As Sheol snatches those who have sinned.
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
As heat melts snow, so the grave swallows those who have sinned. It matters because death inevitably consumes the wicked.
Overview
Job compares the way drought and heat absorb snow waters to how Sheol takes away sinners. The image conveys the certainty and silent inevitability of death for the wicked. Yet for those in Christ, the grave's power is broken by His resurrection, which swallows up death in victory (1 Cor. 15:54).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 49:14They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.
- Prov 14:32The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.
- Luke 16:22The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.
- Job 21:13They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
- Luke 12:20“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared — whose will they be?’
- Eccl 9:4–6For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
- Ps 68:2As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- Job 21:23One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
- Job 6:15–17My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;
- Job 21:32–34Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.
- Ps 58:8–9Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
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 24:19 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.