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.
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.
- BSB The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken 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 blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Dan 4:14He cried aloud, and said thus, Cut down the tree, and cut off its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit: let the animals get away from under it, and the fowls from its branches.
- Job 18:16–17His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.
- Job 17:14If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’
- Job 19:26After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,
- Job 14:7–10“For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.
- Eccl 8:10So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.
- Matt 3:10“Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.
- Isa 26:14The dead shall not live. The departed spirits shall not rise. Therefore you have visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them 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.