By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
Parallel translations
- WEB By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
- KJV By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
- NKJV By the blast of God they perish, And by the breath of His anger they are consumed.
- NASB “By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of His anger they come to an end.
- NLT A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger.
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
Eliphaz says the wicked perish by God's breath and anger. He stresses that God judges the guilty.
Overview
Eliphaz declares that the breath and blast of God's anger consume the wicked, reinforcing his theme of divine retribution. The statement is true of God's judgment in general but misapplied to Job, who is not wicked. By insisting suffering always signals guilt, Eliphaz misreads Job's case, a misreading the rest of the book and ultimately the gospel will expose and correct.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 15:30He will not escape from the darkness; the flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.
- 2 Th 2:8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
- Isa 30:33For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
- Isa 11:4but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.
- Ps 18:15The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
- Rev 2:16Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.
- Exod 15:10But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- Job 1:19when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
- Exod 15:8At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Job 40:13Bury them together in the dust; imprison them in the grave.
- 2 Kgs 19:7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 4:9 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.