then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
Parallel translations
- KJV Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
- BSB then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
- NKJV Then let me sow, and another eat; Yes, let my harvest be rooted out.
- NASB Let me sow and another eat, And let my crops be uprooted.
- NLT then let someone else eat the crops I have planted. Let all that I have planted be uprooted.
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 invokes a curse: if he has sinned thus, let another eat what he sows and let his crops be uprooted. He stakes his livelihood on his innocence.
Overview
Job completes the oath of verses 5-7 by accepting that, if guilty, he should lose the fruit of his labor to others and see his harvest destroyed. This solemn self-curse reflects the seriousness with which he holds his integrity. The loss of one's labor as a consequence of sin echoes the curse on the ground in Eden, while the gospel promises that in Christ the curse is reversed and the believer's labor is not in vain.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Mic 6:15You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.
- Lev 26:16I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
- Deut 28:38You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in; for the locust will consume it.
- Judg 6:3–6So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.
- Ps 109:13Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- Deut 28:51and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
- Job 15:30He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.
- Deut 28:30–33You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
- Job 18:19He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.
- Job 24:6They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
- Job 5:4–5His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
- Job 20:18That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.
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 31:8 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.