Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
Parallel translations
- WEB Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.
- BSB Though your beginnings were modest, your latter days will flourish.
- NKJV Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would increase abundantly.
- NASB “Though your beginning was insignificant, Yet your end will increase greatly.
- NLT And though you started with little, you will end with much.
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
Bildad promises that though Job began small, his future would greatly increase if he repented. Ironically, his words foreshadow Job's actual restoration, though not for his reasons.
Overview
Bildad paints a hopeful picture of restored and multiplied blessing. Remarkably, Job's life does end with doubled blessing (Job 42:12), yet not because Job confessed hidden sin as Bildad supposed. God's later vindication of Job overturns Bildad's premise even as the outcome of abundance is partly fulfilled.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 42:12–13So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
- Matt 13:31–32Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
- Prov 19:20Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
- Zech 4:10For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
- Prov 4:18But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
- Zech 14:7But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
- Matt 13:12For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
- Deut 8:16Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
- 2 Pet 2:20For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
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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 8:7 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.