Job 29:18 "I thought, 'I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

◄ Job 29:18 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
"I thought, 'I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

English Standard Version
Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

New American Standard Bible
"Then I thought, 'I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

King James Bible
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So I thought: I will die in my own nest and multiply my days as the sand.

International Standard Version
"I used to say: 'I will die in my home. I'm going to live as many days as there are grains of sand on the shore.

American Standard Version
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I said: I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall multiply my days.

Darby Bible Translation
And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;

Young's Literal Translation
And I say, 'With my nest I expire, And as the sand I multiply days.'

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

29:18-25 Being thus honoured and useful, Job had hoped to die in peace and honour, in a good old age. If such an expectation arise from lively faith in the providence and promise of God, it is well; but if from conceit of our own wisdom, and dependence on changeable, earthly things, it is ill grounded, and turns to sin. Every one that has the spirit of wisdom, has not the spirit of government; but Job had both. Yet he had the tenderness of a comforter. This he thought upon with pleasure, when he was himself a mourner. Our Lord Jesus is a King who hates iniquity, and upon whom the blessing of a world ready to perish comes. To Him let us give ear.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

18. I said—in my heart (Ps 30:6).

in—rather, "with my nest"; as the second clause refers to long life. Instead of my family dying before me, as now, I shall live so long as to die with them: proverbial for long life. Job did realize his hope (Job 42:16). However, in the bosom of my family, gives a good sense (Nu 24:21; Ob 4). Use "nest" for a secure dwelling.

sand—(Ge 22:17; Hab 1:9). But the Septuagint and Vulgate, and Jewish interpreters, favor the translation, "the ph�nix bird." "Nest" in the parallel clause supports the reference to a bird. "Sand" for multitude, applies to men, rather than to years. The myth was, that the ph�nix sprang from a nest of myrrh, made by his father before death, and that he then came from Arabia (Job's country) to Heliopolis (the city of the Sun) in Egypt, once in every five hundred years, and there burnt his father [Herodotus, 2:73]. Modern research has shown that this was the Egyptian mode of representing hieroglyphically a particular chronological era or cycle. The death and revival every five hundred years, and the reference to the sun, implies such a grand cycle commencing afresh from the same point in relation to the sun from which the previous one started. Job probably refers to this.