“People will clap their hands at him, And will whistle at him from their places.
Parallel translations
- WEB Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
- KJV Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
- BSB It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.
- NKJV Men shall clap their hands at him, And shall hiss him out of his place.
- NLT But everyone jeers at them and mocks them.
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
Onlookers clap and hiss in scorn as the wicked man is driven from his place.
Overview
Clapping and hissing were gestures of derision and dismissal in the ancient world. Job closes this section by showing the wicked man's downfall met with mockery rather than mourning, his memory ending in disgrace. It illustrates the proverb that the name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7), in contrast to the lasting honor God gives the righteous.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Lam 2:15All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”
- 1 Kgs 9:8Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land, and to this house?’
- Zeph 2:15This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.
- Jer 19:8I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
- Mic 6:16For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of Ahab’s house. You walk in their counsels, that I may make you a ruin, and her inhabitants a hissing; And you will bear the reproach of my people.”
- Rev 18:20“Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.”
- Esth 9:22–25as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
- Prov 11:10When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
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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 27:23 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
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