then let thistles grow on that land instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley.” Job’s words are ended.
Parallel translations
- WEB let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
- KJV Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle 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.
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 72:20This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.
- Zeph 2:9Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.
- Isa 7:23It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.
- Gen 3:17–18To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
- Mal 1:3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals 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.