Job 3:14
in Job 3with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;
KJV
With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
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This verse in Job 3
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWith kings and counsellors of the earth - I believe this translation to be perfectly correct. The counsellors, יעצי yoatsey, I suppose to mean the privy council, or advisers of kings; those without whose advice kings seldom undertake wars, expeditions, etc. These mighty agitators of the world are at rest in their graves, after the lives of commotion which they have led among men: most of whom indeed have been the troublers of the peace of the globe.
This site's exposition
with kings and counselors of the earth
on Job 3:14-19
In Job's grave, kings lie beside a stillborn child, the greatest men he can name and the least death he can imagine at one rest. "There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest" is the chapter's most quoted line, a longing for an end to trouble.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
It seems to me that Job attempts to humble these noble characters and to persuade them not to attach a great importance to human affairs, because he has not introduced the kings into this passage without purpose or at random. Job speaks of "those who gloried in their swords." Notice again how amid his afflictions Job possesses words full of wisdom. Their wealth, in fact, has granted the kings no protection; their power has been of no use; death has come at the end for everyone.
The Medieval Church2 voices
MORAL INTERPRETATION. With the kings and counsellors of the earth. From things without sense we learn what to think of beings endowed with sense and understanding. Now the earth is rendered fruitful by the air, while the air is governed by the quality of the heaven. In like manner man is over the beasts, the Angels over man, and the Archangels are set over the Angels.
Second, he says it respecting the goods which he formerly possessed, for someone might say to him, "If you had not been preserved in this life, you would not have had the goods which you enjoyed in time past." As if to answer this he …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Kings - I had then been as happy as the proudest monarchs, who after all their great achievements and enjoyments, go down into their graves. Built - Who to shew their wealth and power, or to leave behind them a glorious name, rebuilt ruined cities, or built new cities and palaces, in places where before there was mere solitude and wasteness.
Some, by the desolate places which the kings and counsellors are here said to build for themselves, understand the sepulchres or monuments they prepared for themselves in their life-time; as Shebna ( Isa. xxii.
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3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
With the kings and counsellors of the earth,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The "for themselves" marks their selfishness. MICHAELIS explains it weakly of mausoleums, such as are found still, of stupendous proportions, in the ruins of Petra of Idumea.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
With kings - Reposing as they do. This is the language of calm meditation on what would have been the consequence if he had died when he was an infant. He seems to delight to dwell on it. He contrasts it with his present situation. He pauses on the thought that that would have been an honorable repose. He would have been numbered with kings and princes. Is there not here a little spice of ambition even in his sorrows and humilation? Job had been an eminently rich man; a man greatly honored; an emir; a magistrate; one in whose presence even princes refrained talking, and before whom nobles held their peace; Job 29:9. Now he was stripped of his honors, and made to sit in ashes. But had he died when an infant, he would have been numbered with kings and courtsellers, and would have shared their lot. Death is repulsive; but Job takes comfort in the thought that he would have been associated with the most exalted and honorable among people. There is some consolation in the idea that when an infant dies he is associated with the most honored and exalted of the race; there is consolation in the reflection that when we die we shall lie down with the good and the great of all past times, and that though our bodies shall moulder back to dust, and be forgotten, we are sharing the same lot with the most beautiful, lovely, wise, pious, and mighty of the race. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
who build ruins for themselves It is customary for those who seek fame to rebuild ruined cities as a memorial for themselves, as in (Isa.: 12), “And those coming from you shall be called the repairer of the breaches.” That is to say, with princes and famous people.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
I would be lying Heb. ושכבתי, I would be lying in the grave.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עִם־ | ʾim- | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| מְ֭לָכִים | melakhim | kings | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| וְיֹ֣עֲצֵי | veyoatzei | and counselors of | H3289 → | 79 times |
| אָ֑רֶץ | ʾaretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| הַבֹּנִ֖ים | habonim | the [ones who] rebuilt | H1129 → | 376 times |
| חֳרָב֣וֹת | choravot | ruins | H2723 → | |
| לָֽמוֹ׃ | lamo | for themselves |
עִם־with
ʾim-H5973 →1050 times
מְ֭לָכִיםkings
melakhimH4428 →2525 times
וְיֹ֣עֲצֵיand counselors of
veyoatzeiH3289 →79 times
אָ֑רֶץ[the] earth
ʾaretzH776 →2504 times
הַבֹּנִ֖יםthe [ones who] rebuilt
habonimH1129 →376 times
חֳרָב֣וֹתruins
choravotH2723 →
לָֽמוֹ׃for themselves
lamo
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 89:48What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.
- Psalms 49:15
But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah
- Hebrews 11:5
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one…
- Psalms 49:7–9
No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.
- Ecclesiastes 8:8
As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release…
- Ecclesiastes 9:5
Through
Psalms 49:14Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.
it leads to
- Malachi 4:3
Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- 1 Corinthians 6:2
Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
- Daniel 7:22
until the Ancient of Days arrived and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for them to possess the kingdom.
- Malachi 4:3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
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 (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:20-23; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.