“In famine He will redeem you from death, And in war, from the power of the sword.
Parallel translations
- WEB In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.
- KJV In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
- BSB In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
- NKJV In famine He shall redeem you from death, And in war from the power of the sword.
- NLT He will save you from death in time of famine, from the power of the sword in time of war.
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
In famine God will redeem from death and in war from the sword. It pledges protection through the deadliest dangers.
Overview
Eliphaz lists famine and war, the great killers, promising God's redeeming rescue from both. The language of redemption points to God as the one who buys back his own from death's grip. While such providential deliverances do occur, the fullest redemption from death comes through Christ, who conquered the grave so that even those who die in him are finally rescued from death's power.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 33:19to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- Ps 37:19They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil. In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
- Gen 45:7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.
- Prov 10:3Yahweh will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, but he thrusts away the desire of the wicked.
- 1 Kgs 17:6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
- Hab 3:17For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls:
- Ps 27:3Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.
- Matt 24:6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.
- Ps 144:10You are he who gives salvation to kings, who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.
- Isa 33:16he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.
- Ps 49:7none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.
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 5:20 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.