With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
Parallel translations
- WEB with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;
- BSB with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,
- 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 15:28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
- Ps 89:48What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
- Ps 49:14Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
- Isa 14:10–16All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
- Isa 5:8Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
- Ps 49:6–10They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
- Eccl 8:8There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
- 1 Kgs 11:43And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
- Ezek 27:18–32Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
- Ezek 26:20When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living;
- Job 12:17He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.
- Job 30:23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
- Isa 58:12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
- 1 Kgs 2:10So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
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 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.