If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
Parallel translations
- WEB If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
- BSB Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.
- 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 28:41Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
- Luke 23:29For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
- Job 20:10His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
- Job 15:22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
- Deut 28:32Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand:
- Esth 5:11And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
- Job 21:11–12They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
- Esth 9:5–10Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.
- Hos 9:13–14Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
- 2 Kgs 10:6–10Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
- 2 Kgs 9:7–8And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.
- Ps 109:13Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- 1 Sam 2:5They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
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 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.