Job 21:18
◄  Job 21:18  ►
New International Version (©2011)
How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?

New Living Translation (©2007)
Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!

English Standard Version (©2001)
That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Are they as straw before the wind, And like chaff which the storm carries away?

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff a storm sweeps away?

International Standard Version (©2012)
May they become like a straw, blown away before the wind; like a chaff that's swept off by a storm.

NET Bible (©2006)
How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
How often are they like straw in the wind or like husks that the storm sweeps away?

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away.

American King James Version
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away.

American Standard Version
That they are as stubble before the wind, And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

Douay-Rheims Bible
They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.

Darby Bible Translation
Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

English Revised Version
That they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

Webster's Bible Translation
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

World English Bible
How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

Young's Literal Translation
They are as straw before wind, And as chaff a hurricane hath stolen away,

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:17-26 Job had described the prosperity of wicked people; in these verses he opposes this to what his friends had maintained about their certain ruin in this life. He reconciles this to the holiness and justice of God. Even while they prosper thus, they are light and worthless, of no account with God, or with wise men. In the height of their pomp and power, there is but a step between them and ruin. Job refers the difference Providence makes between one wicked man and another, into the wisdom of God. He is Judge of all the earth, and he will do right. So vast is the disproportion between time and eternity, that if hell be the lot of every sinner at last, it makes little difference if one goes singing thither, and another sighing. If one wicked man die in a palace, and another in a dungeon, the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, will be the same to them. Thus differences in this world are not worth perplexing ourselves about.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away; rather, How oft is it that they are as stubble before the wind and as chaff etc.? The construction begun in the first clause of ver. 17 is carried on to the end of ver. 18. "Stubble" and "chaff" are ordinary figures for foolish and ungodly men, whom the blast of God's anger swoops away to destruction (comp. Exodus 15:7; Psalm 1:4; Psalm 35:5; Psalm 83:13; Isaiah 27:13; Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 41:2, etc.).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They are as stubble before the wind,.... Or how oft "are they as stubble?" &c. or how oft does God do the above things, "so that they are", or "become, as stubble before the wind" (u),

and as chaff that the storm carrieth, or "steals away" (x)? hastily, suddenly, at an unawares like a thief: wicked men are comparable to stubble and chaff; for the vanity of their minds, their emptiness of all good things; for their lightness, the levity and inconstancy of their hearts, their principles and practices; for their uselessness and unprofitableness to God and men, to themselves and their fellow creatures; for their being fit fuel for everlasting burnings, their end like these being to be burned; and whose destruction is inevitable and irresistible, and can no more be withstood and prevented than stubble and chaff can stand before a strong wind and a stormy tempest: but is this their common case now? are they usually tossed to and fro with the wind of adversity, and the storms of desolating judgments? are they not, on the other hand, seen in great power, and spreading themselves like a green bay tree; taking root, increasing in outward prosperity, and bringing forth the fruit of it? see Psalm 37:35.

(u) "ut sint velut palea", Tigurine version; so Broughton, "quoties sunt", Junius & Tremellius; "quoties fiunt", Piscator, Michaelis. (x) "furatus est eam", Montanus; "suffuratur", Vatablus; "furatur", Drusius, Cocceius, Schultens.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. Job alludes to a like sentiment of Bildad (Job 18:18), using his own previous words (Job 13:25).

Job 21:18 Parallel Commentaries

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Job: God will Deal with the Wicked
…17How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft comes their destruction on them! God distributes sorrows in his anger. 18They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away. 19God lays up his iniquity for his children: he rewards him, and he shall know it. …

1 Corinthians 3:12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
Job 13:25 Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff?
Job 22:16 They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood.
Job 27:21 The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
Psalm 1:4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Psalm 35:5 May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away;
Psalm 83:13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind.
Proverbs 10:25 When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.
Isaiah 17:13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.
Hosea 13:3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.
Habakkuk 3:6 He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed-- but he marches on forever.