Job 4:21

Modern

Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

Traditional

Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.

Literal

Has not their tent cord been pulled up with them? They will die, and not in wisdom?’

Latin

Qui autem reliqui fuerint, auferentur ex eis; morientur, et non in sapientia.

Hebrew

English

Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

A tent often symbolized human life (Isaiah 38:12; 2 Corinthians 5:1; compare Ecclesiastes 12:6).

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 36:12
But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.
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
Luke 16:22–23
One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
Job 8:22
Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
Luke 12:20
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’
Psalm 146:3–4
Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
Psalm 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
Isaiah 2:22
Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
James 1:11
For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Job 18:21
Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”
Isaiah 14:16
Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,
Psalm 49:20
A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.