Job 21:18 How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?

◄ Job 21:18 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

Cross References

1 Corinthians 3:12
Now if any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Job 13:25
Will you break a leaf driven to and fro? and will you pursue the dry stubble?

Job 22:16
Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflowed with a flood:

Job 27:21
The east wind carries him away, and he departs: and as a storm hurles him out of his place.

Psalm 1:4
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Psalm 35:5
Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.

Psalm 83:13
O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.

Proverbs 10:25
As the whirlwind passes, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.

Isaiah 17:13
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Hosea 13:3
Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's 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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

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