They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death.
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.
- 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.
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 be yours; for they will go into captivity.
- Luke 23:29For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
- Job 20:10His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.
- Job 15:22He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
- Deut 28:32Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand.
- Esth 5:11Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
- Job 21:11–12They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
- Esth 9:5–10The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them.
- Hos 9:13–14I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.
- 2 Kgs 10:6–10Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men who are your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time.” Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.
- 2 Kgs 9:7–8You must strike your master Ahab’s house, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.
- Ps 109:13Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- 1 Sam 2:5Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Yes, the barren has borne seven. She who has many children languishes.
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.