Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Parallel translations
- WEB let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
- BSB then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.
- NKJV Then let thistles grow instead of wheat, And weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
- NASB May the thorn-bush grow instead of wheat, And stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
- NLT then let thistles grow on that land instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley.” Job’s words are ended.
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
Job concludes his oath: if guilty, let thorns grow instead of wheat and weeds instead of barley. With this his words are ended.
Overview
Job closes his great defense by accepting that his fields should yield only thorns and stinkweed if he has sinned, echoing the curse on the ground after the fall. The narrator marks the formal end of Job's words, his case now fully laid before God. The reversal of the curse, where the ground that bore thorns is finally redeemed, comes through Christ, who wore the crown of thorns to bear the curse on our behalf.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 72:20The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.
- Zeph 2:9Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.
- Isa 7:23And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
- Gen 3:17–18And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
- Mal 1:3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
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 31:40 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.