They count on it but are disappointed. When they arrive, their hopes are dashed.
Parallel translations
- WEB They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.
- KJV They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.
- BSB They are confounded because they had hoped; their arrival brings disappointment.
- NKJV They are disappointed because they were confident; They come there and are confused.
- NASB “They were put to shame, for they had trusted, They came there and were humiliated.
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
They are ashamed because they trusted, arriving only to be confounded. The travelers' confident hope is dashed at the empty streambed.
Overview
Job concludes the image: the caravans are put to shame, their confidence betrayed when they reach the dry wadi. Their dismay mirrors Job's own at his friends' failure. The verse soberly shows that misplaced trust ends in shame, while Scripture promises that those who trust in the Lord, and in Christ the cornerstone, will never be put to shame.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Rom 9:33even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”
- Jer 17:13Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.
- Jer 14:3–4Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.
- Rom 5:5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
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 6:20 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.