with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,
Parallel translations
- WEB with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;
- KJV With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
- NKJV With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves,
- NASB With kings and counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
- NLT I would rest with the world’s kings and prime ministers, whose great buildings now lie in ruins.
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
In death Job would lie with kings and counselors. The grave levels even the mighty.
Overview
Job pictures himself resting alongside the great rulers of the earth who built grand projects now reduced to ruins. Death erases distinctions of rank and achievement. The image reinforces his longing for the equality and quiet of the grave amid his suffering.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 15:28he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become rubble.
- Ps 89:48What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
- Ps 49:14Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.
- Isa 14:10–16They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!”
- Isa 5:8Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
- Ps 49:6–10They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Eccl 8:8As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
- 1 Kgs 11:43And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.
- Ezek 27:18–32Because of your many products and your great wealth of goods, Damascus traded with you wine from Helbon, wool from Zahar,
- Ezek 26:20then I will bring you down with those who descend to the Pit, to the people of antiquity. I will make you dwell in the earth below like the ancient ruins, with those who descend to the Pit, so that you will no longer be inhabited or set in splendor in the land of the living.
- Job 12:17He leads counselors away barefoot and makes fools of judges.
- Job 30:23Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- Isa 58:12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.
- 1 Kgs 2:10Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.
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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 3:14 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.