A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger.
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.
- BSB By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
- ESV By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are 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.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.
- 2 Th 2:8Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;
- Isa 30:33For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
- Isa 11:4but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- Ps 18:15Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
- Rev 2:16Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
- Exod 15:10You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- Job 1:19and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
- Exod 15:8With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Job 40:13Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.
- 2 Kgs 19:7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
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 4:9 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
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