Job 15:33
in Job 15He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.
KJV
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
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This verse in Job 15
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine - The idea here is, that the wicked man shall be like a vine that casts off its grapes while they are yet sour and green, and brings none to perfection; compare the notes at Isa 18:5. Scott renders this, “As when the vine her half-grown berries showers, Or poisoned olive her unfolding flowers.” It would seem from this passage that the vine might be so blasted by a hot wind or other cause, as to cast its unripe grapes to the earth.
This site's exposition
He will no longer be rich
on Job 15:29-35
The poem closes with loss, and "the flame will wither his shoots" turns the plant words Job used of hope in chapter 14 into judgment. The last lines, "fire will consume the tents of bribery", state as settled law a doctrine the book leaves unsettled at 42:7.
This site's exposition
like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes
The branch of verse 32 becomes a vine and an olive tree. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the vine is made to shed its own unripe grapes, so the sinner's ruin grows from his own conduct. Clarke reads the lost grapes and blossoms as children.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Ver. 33, 34. His cluster shall be spoilt like a vine in the first flower, and like an olive casting its flower. For the congregation of the hypocrite shall be barren. It is to be observed that the Divine Word so speaks of this wicked man in general terms, that yet it comes down to his particular wickedness.
Then he gives an example. "His grapes will be blighted just like the vineyard in first flower." This blighting usually results from frost by which he means exterior persecution. "And as the olive lets its flowers fall," usually from some intrinsic cause which means here …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee? 12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at, 13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth? 14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,....
They shall die in the beginning of their days and never come to maturity. Many a man's family is ruined by his iniquity. Fourthly, He is in care to enjoy it a great while himself; but in that also he is crossed.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Images of incompleteness. The loss of the unripe grapes is poetically made the vine tree's own act, in order to express more pointedly that the sinner's ruin is the fruit of his own conduct (Isa 3:11;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
He shall shake off his unripe grape - 10. Whatever children he may have, they shall never survive him, nor come to mature age. They shall be like wind-fall grapes and blasted olive blossoms. As the vine and olive, which are among the most useful trees, affording wine and oil, so necessary for the worship of God and the comfort of man, are mentioned here, they may be intended to refer to the hopeful progeny of the oppressor; but who fell, like the untimely grape or the blasted olive flower, without having the opportunity of realizing the public expectation.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יַחְמֹ֣ס | yachmos | he will wrong | H2554 → | |
| כַּגֶּ֣פֶן | kagefen | like <the> vine | H1612 → | |
| בִּסְר֑וֹ | bisro | unripe grape[s] his | H1154 → | |
| וְיַשְׁלֵ֥ךְ | veyashlekh | and he will shed | H7993 → | 125 times |
| כַּ֝זַּ֗יִת | kazayit | like <the> olive tree | H2132 → | |
| נִצָּתֽוֹ׃ | nitzato | blossom his | H5328 → |
יַחְמֹ֣סhe will wrong
yachmosH2554 →
כַּגֶּ֣פֶןlike <the> vine
kagefenH1612 →
בִּסְר֑וֹunripe grape[s] his
bisroH1154 →
וְיַשְׁלֵ֥ךְand he will shed
veyashlekhH7993 →125 times
כַּ֝זַּ֗יִתlike <the> olive tree
kazayitH2132 →
נִצָּתֽוֹ׃blossom his
nitzatoH5328 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 6:13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.
it leads to
- Isaiah 34:4
All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig…
- Matthew 24:29
Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will…
- Revelation 9:1
Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss.
- Revelation 8:10–12
Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
- Daniel 8:10
It grew as high as the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the earth, and trampled them.
- Isaiah 34:4
Through
Isaiah 33:9The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
it leads to
- Isaiah 35:2
It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the…
- Isaiah 65:10
Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for My people who seek Me.
- Nahum 1:4
He rebukes the sea and dries it up; He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts.
- Isaiah 35:2
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.