Job 21:18
in Job 21Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
That they are as stubble before the wind, And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
KJV
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
8 notes on this verseVer. 18. They shall be as chaff before the wind, and as ashes that the storm scattereth. 56. When the wicked man is seen in power, when he is utterly without check or restraint in his acts of oppression and violence, by the imaginations of the weak he is accounted too well ballasted, and as rooted in this world.
This site's exposition
the lamp of the wicked put out
on Job 21:17-18
Job turns the friends' own image into a question, "How often is the lamp of the wicked put out". The form grants it happens while denying that it happens as a rule. Clarke reads "How often" as the hinge of the speech, turning a supposed universal into an exception.
This site's exposition
like chaff swept away by a storm
Barnes reads this as the question begun in verse 17: how often are the wicked made like straw? Job asks it against the friends, who hold that God always deals with men according to their characters. Clarke sets other Scriptures on chaff beside it.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
"they," evil men, "will be like chaff before the wind," which cannot resist the wind because of lightness, "and like ash," which remain when wood is burned, "which the whirlwind drives away," because it does not have moisture to hold itself together. So also when …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
They are light and worthless, and of no account either with God or with wise and good men. They are fitted to destruction, and continually lie exposed to it, and in the height of their pomp and power there is but a step between them and ruin.
They are as stubble before the wind,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
They are as stubble before the wind - “His fan is in his hand; he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, but shall be like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” Were not this a common thought, I should have supposed that the author of this book borrowed it from Psa 1:
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They are as stubble before the wind - According to the interpretation proposed of the previous verse, this may be read as a question, “How often is it that the wicked are made like stubble? You say that God deals with people exactly according to their characters, and that the wicked are certainly subjected to calamities; but how often does this, in fact, occur? Is it a uniform law? Do they not, in fact, live in prosperity, and arrive at a good old age?” It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare the wicked with stubble, and to affirm that they shall be driven away, as the chaff is driven by the wind; see the notes at Isa 17:13. The storm carrieth away - Margin, “stealeth away.” This is a literal translation of the Hebrew. The idea is that of stealing away before one is aware, as a thief carries off spoil.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יִהְי֗וּ | yihyu | are they? | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| כְּתֶ֥בֶן | keteven | like straw | H8401 → | |
| לִפְנֵי־ | lifnei- | <to> before | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| ר֑וּחַ | ruach | a wind | H7307 → | 378 times |
| וּ֝כְמֹ֗ץ | ukhemotz | and like chaff | H4671 → | |
| גְּנָבַ֥תּוּ | genavatu | [which] it has stolen it | H1589 → | 40 times |
| סוּפָֽה׃ | sufah | a storm-wind | H5492 → | 16 times |
יִהְי֗וּare they?
yihyuH1961 →3559 times
כְּתֶ֥בֶןlike straw
ketevenH8401 →
לִפְנֵי־<to> before
lifnei-H6440 →2123 times
ר֑וּחַa wind
ruachH7307 →378 times
וּ֝כְמֹ֗ץand like chaff
ukhemotzH4671 →
גְּנָבַ֥תּוּ[which] it has stolen it
genavatuH1589 →40 times
סוּפָֽה׃a storm-wind
sufahH5492 →16 times
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
Psalms 1:4Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.
it leads to
- Psalms 35:5
May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the LORD drives them away.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 17:13
The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 29:5
But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 3:12
His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- Hosea 13:3
Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
- Psalms 35:5
Through
Isaiah 17:13The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
it leads to
- Psalms 9:5
You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have erased their name forever and ever.
- Psalms 1:4
Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.
- Isaiah 41:15–16
Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
- Psalms 9:5
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.