They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.
- BSB They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
- NKJV They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; They perish forever, with no one regarding.
- NASB ‘Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unregarded, they perish forever.
- NLT They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace.
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
Between morning and evening people are destroyed and perish unnoticed forever. It emphasizes the brevity and seeming insignificance of human life.
Overview
Eliphaz's vision stresses how swiftly and silently a human life can end, as if perishing without anyone taking note. This sober view of mortality is true to fallen experience under the curse. Yet Scripture insists God does regard the death of his people as precious, and the resurrection of Christ overturns the despair that human life vanishes unremembered.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 20:7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
- Ps 90:5–6Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
- Ps 39:13O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
- Job 14:14If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
- 2 Chr 15:6And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.
- Job 18:17His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
- Ps 92:7When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
- 2 Chr 21:20Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed without being desired. Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
- Prov 10:7The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
- Job 14:20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
- Job 16:22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
- Isa 38:12–13Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
- Ps 37:36Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
- Job 14:2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
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 4:20 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.