Job 4:19

Modern

…how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

Traditional

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

Literal

…how much more those dwelling in houses of clay, for whom their foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth?

Latin

…quanto magis hi qui habitant domos luteas, qui terrenum habent fundamentum, consumentur velut a tinea?

Hebrew

English

…how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

The idea that God does not trust His servants and charges His angels with error is unique (but see Genesis 6:1–4).

Theme notes and profiles

Job 10:9
Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Job 33:6
I am just like you before God; I was also formed from clay.
2 Corinthians 5:1
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Psalm 39:11
You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
2 Corinthians 4:7
Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
Job 13:12
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
Genesis 18:27
Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—
Job 13:28
So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.
1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
Ecclesiastes 12:7
…before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.