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.
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.
- BSB The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken 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 just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
- Dan 4:14He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches:
- Job 18:16–17His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
- Job 17:14I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
- Job 19:26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
- Job 14:7–10For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
- Eccl 8:10And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
- Matt 3:10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
- Isa 26:14They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
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.