Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.
Parallel translations
- WEB If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
- KJV If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
- NKJV If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
- NASB Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not be satisfied with bread.
- NLT They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death.
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's many children are destined for the sword and hunger. It matters because his apparent prosperity in offspring ends in disaster.
Overview
Job declares that if the wicked man's children multiply, it is only for the sword, and his offspring will lack bread. The legacy of the godless is marked by violence and want. This grim outcome warns that worldly success built apart from God offers no lasting security for one's family.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Deut 28:41You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.
- Luke 23:29Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Job 20:10His sons will seek the favor of the poor, for his own hands must return his wealth.
- Job 15:22He despairs of his return from darkness; he is marked for the sword.
- Deut 28:32Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.
- Esth 5:11Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.
- Job 21:11–12They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
- Esth 9:5–10The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did as they pleased to those who hated them.
- Hos 9:13–14I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
- 2 Kgs 10:6–10Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city.
- 2 Kgs 9:7–8And you are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the LORD shed by the hand of Jezebel.
- Ps 109:13May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
- 1 Sam 2:5The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.
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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 27:14 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.