Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.
Parallel translations
- WEB The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
- KJV The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
- NKJV The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.
- NASB “The small and the great are there, And the slave is free from his master.
- NLT Rich and poor are both there, and the slave is free from his master.
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
Death makes small and great equal and frees the servant from his master. All earthly hierarchies dissolve in the grave.
Overview
Job observes that death erases the divisions between the lowly and the powerful and releases the slave from his owner. The grave is the great leveler of human distinctions. His meditation on death's equality expresses both his despair and a recognition that earthly status is fleeting.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 30:23Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- 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.
- Eccl 12:7before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Heb 9:27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- Eccl 12:5when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.
- Ps 49:6–10They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Luke 16:22–23One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
- Ps 49:14–20Like 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.
- Ps 49:2both low and high, rich and poor alike.
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 3:19 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.