The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
Parallel translations
- WEB The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
- BSB Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed 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 30:23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
- 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.
- Eccl 12:7Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
- Heb 9:27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
- Eccl 12:5Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
- Ps 49:6–10They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
- Luke 16:22–23And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
- Ps 49:14–20Like 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.
- Ps 49:2Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
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.