The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken tree.
Parallel translations
- WEB The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
- KJV The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
- NKJV The womb should forget him, The worm should feed sweetly on him; He should be remembered no more, And wickedness should be broken like a tree.
- NASB “A mother will forget him; The maggot feeds sweetly until he is no longer remembered. And injustice will be broken like a tree.
- NLT Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
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 is forgotten, consumed by worms, and broken like a tree. It matters because evil ultimately ends in oblivion and ruin.
Overview
Job describes the wicked being forgotten even by the womb that bore him, feeding the worm, and snapped like a felled tree. His memory and unrighteousness alike are destroyed. This sober end of evil underscores the fleeting nature of a life lived against God, contrasted with the everlasting remembrance of the righteous before Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 10:7The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Dan 4:14He called out in a loud voice: ‘Cut down the tree and chop off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.
- Job 18:16–17The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away.
- Job 17:14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
- Job 19:26Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
- Job 14:7–10For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.
- Eccl 8:10Then too, I saw the burial of the wicked who used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they had done so. This too is futile.
- Matt 3:10The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
- Isa 26:14The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them; You have wiped out all memory of them.
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 24:20 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.