Job 21:33
New International Version
The soil in the valley is sweet to them; everyone follows after them, and a countless throng goes before them.

New Living Translation
A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose.

English Standard Version
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.

Berean Standard Bible
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

King James Bible
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

New King James Version
The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; Everyone shall follow him, As countless have gone before him.

New American Standard Bible
“The clods of the valley will gently cover him; Moreover, all mankind will follow after him, While countless others go before him.

NASB 1995
“The clods of the valley will gently cover him; Moreover, all men will follow after him, While countless ones go before him.

NASB 1977
“The clods of the valley will gently cover him; Moreover, all men will follow after him, While countless ones go before him.

Legacy Standard Bible
The clods of the valley will gently cover him; Moreover, all men will draw up after him, While countless ones go before him.

Amplified Bible
“The [dirt] clods of the valley are sweet to him [and gently cover him], Moreover, all men will follow after him [to a grave], While countless ones go before him.

Christian Standard Bible
The dirt on his grave is sweet to him. Everyone follows behind him, and those who go before him are without number.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The dirt on his grave is sweet to him. Everyone follows behind him, and those who go before him are without number.

American Standard Version
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, And all men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Deep caves of a torrent swallow him, and every person is dragged after him and before him without number

Brenton Septuagint Translation
The stones of the valley have been sweet to him, and every man shall depart after him, and there are innumerable ones before him.

Contemporary English Version
the earth welcomes them home, while crowds mourn.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.

English Revised Version
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and all men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The soil in the creekbed is sweet to him. Everyone follows him. Countless others went before him.

Good News Translation
thousands join the funeral procession, and even the earth lies gently on their bodies.

International Standard Version
The runoff from the streams will seem sweet to him; everyone will follow after him; countless crows march ahead of him.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The clods of the valley are sweet unto him, And all men draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.

Literal Standard Version
The clods of the valley have been sweet to him, | And he draws every man after him, | And there is no numbering before him.

Majority Standard Bible
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

New American Bible
Sweet to him are the clods of the valley. All humankind will follow after him, and countless others before him.

NET Bible
The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng.

New Revised Standard Version
The clods of the valley are sweet to them; everyone will follow after, and those who went before are innumerable.

New Heart English Bible
The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

Webster's Bible Translation
The clods of the valley will be sweet to him, and every man will draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

World English Bible
The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

Young's Literal Translation
Sweet to him have been the clods of the valley, And after him every man he draweth, And before him there is no numbering.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Job: God will Punish the Wicked
32He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb. 33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number. 34So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”…

Cross References
Job 3:19
Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.

Job 3:22
who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?

Job 17:16
Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?"

Job 21:32
He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

Job 24:24
They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.


Treasury of Scripture

The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

sweet

Job 3:17,18
There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest…

every man

Job 30:23
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Ecclesiastes 1:4
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

Jump to Previous
Bones Clods Countless Cover Covering Draw Draweth Earth Follow Followeth Gently Innumerable Moreover Numbering Ones Soil Suit Sweet Throng Unnumbered Valley
Jump to Next
Bones Clods Countless Cover Covering Draw Draweth Earth Follow Followeth Gently Innumerable Moreover Numbering Ones Soil Suit Sweet Throng Unnumbered Valley
Job 21
1. Job shows that even in the judgment of man he has reason to be grieved
7. Sometimes the wicked prosper, though they despise God
16. Sometimes their destruction is manifest
21. The happy and unhappy are alike in death
27. The judgment of the wicked is in another world














(33) The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him.--Death is robbed of its repulsiveness and horror, seeing that all will be glad to join in his funeral procession, and after him all men will draw (in endless procession), and before him they will be without number.

Verse 33. - The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him. In his mausoleum, by the side of the running stream, the very clods of the valley, wherein his tomb is placed, shall be sweet and pleasant to him - death thus losing half its terrors. And all men shall draw after him. Some explain this of the lengthy funeral procession which follows his corpse to the grave, and take the next clause of the multitude, not forming part of the procession, who gather together at the tomb beforehand, waiting to see the obsequies; but, as Rosenmuller remarks, this explanation seems precluded by the previous mention of the funeral procession (ver 32), besides being otherwise unsatisfactory. The real reference is probably to the common topic of consolation implied in the "Omnes eodem cogimur" of Horace. He is happy in his death, or at any rate not unhappy, seeing that he only suffers the common fate. He will draw after him all future men, who will likewise inevitably perish, just as there are innumerable before him, who have travelled the same read and reached the same resting-place.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The clods
רִגְבֵ֫י (riḡ·ḇê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 7263: A clod (of earth)

of the valley
נָ֥חַל (nā·ḥal)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5158: A stream, a winter torrent, a, valley, a shaft

are sweet
מָֽתְקוּ־ (mā·ṯə·qū-)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 4985: To become or be sweet or pleasant

to him;
ל֗וֹ (lōw)
Preposition | third person masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew

everyone
כָּל־ (kāl-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

follows
יִמְשׁ֑וֹךְ (yim·šō·wḵ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 4900: To draw, drag

behind him,
וְ֭אַחֲרָיו (wə·’a·ḥă·rāw)
Conjunctive waw | Preposition | third person masculine singular
Strong's 310: The hind or following part

and those before him
וּ֝לְפָנָ֗יו (ū·lə·p̄ā·nāw)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - common plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 6440: The face

are without
אֵ֣ין (’ên)
Adverb
Strong's 369: A non-entity, a negative particle

number.
מִסְפָּֽר׃ (mis·pār)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4557: A number, definite, indefinite, narration


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OT Poetry: Job 21:33 The clods of the valley shall be (Jb)
Job 21:32
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