Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.’
Parallel translations
- WEB Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’
- KJV Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
- BSB Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
- NASB ‘Is their tent-cord not pulled out within them? They die, yet without wisdom.’
- NLT Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.
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
Their tent cord is pulled up and they die without wisdom. The picture is of life suddenly collapsed like a tent struck at the end of a journey.
Overview
Using the image of a tent peg or cord plucked up, Eliphaz portrays death as abrupt dismantling, and notes people die without ever attaining true wisdom. This melancholy realism about mortality and human ignorance frames the book's larger quest for wisdom. The New Testament names Christ as the wisdom of God, the one in whom the riddle of suffering and death finds its answer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Job 36:12But if they don’t listen, they shall perish by the sword; they shall die without knowledge.
- Luke 16:22–23The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.
- Job 8:22Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more.”
- Ps 39:11When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
- Ps 49:14They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.
- Isa 14:16Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;
- Ps 49:20A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.
- Jas 1:11For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.
- Ps 39:5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
- Ps 146:3–4Don’t put your trust in princes, each a son of man in whom there is no help.
- Luke 12:20“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared — whose will they be?’
- Job 18:21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”
- Isa 2:22Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?
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 4:21 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.