They die when they are young, after wasting their lives in immoral living.
Parallel translations
- WEB They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.
- KJV They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.
- BSB They die in their youth, among the male shrine prostitutes.
- NKJV They die in youth, And their life ends among the perverted persons.
- NASB “They die in youth, And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.
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
They die in their youth, their life ending in shame among the unclean. Persistent godlessness leads to an early and disgraceful end.
Overview
Elihu portrays the godless perishing prematurely and in dishonor. The reference to dying 'among the unclean' suggests a shameful, defiled end. While such outcomes are not invariable in this life, the verse warns of the destructive trajectory of unrepentant sin. It heightens the longing for the deliverance from sin and death that comes only through Christ's resurrection victory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 15:32It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
- Job 22:16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
- Deut 23:17There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- Ps 55:23But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
- Gen 38:7–10Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in Yahweh’s sight. Yahweh killed him.
- Job 21:23–25One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
- Lev 10:1–2Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.
- Gen 19:5They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
- Gen 19:24–25Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
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 36:14 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.