Job 36:14
in Job 36They die in their youth, among the male shrine prostitutes.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They die in youth, And their life perisheth among the unclean.
KJV
They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.
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This verse in Job 36
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThey die in youth - Exactly what the psalmist says, “Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days,” Psa 55:23. Literally, the words of Elihu are, “They shall die in the youth of their soul.” Their life is among the unclean - בקדשים bakedeshim, among the whores, harlots, prostitutes, and sodomites. In this sense the word is used, though it also signifies consecrated persons; but we know that in idolatry characters of this kind were consecrated to Baal and Ashtaroth, Venus, Priapus, etc. Mr. Good translates the rabble.
This site's exposition
The godless in heart harbor resentment
on Job 36:13-21
Elihu warns Job directly that he is “laden with the judgment due the wicked”, and that “judgment and justice have seized you”. Wesley takes “Do not long for the night” in verse 20 as a warning against wishing for death, the wish Job voiced in chapter 3.
This site's exposition
among the male shrine prostitutes
Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew as bakedeshim, a word that can mean consecrated persons and was used of shrine prostitutes in idol worship. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it of a life cut off in youth and in dishonor. The godless die among them.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI · Written before 604.
proposed
Their soul shall die in a tempest. For they were seeming to live as if in calm, when they were taking care to rejoice in the credit of holiness. But their soul, which used to rejoice in the fatal tranquillity of human praise, dies by a sudden tempest. For most commonly an unexpected tempest suddenly produces a change in all the calm blandishment of the air, and danger cannot be avoided, inasmuch as it could not be foreseen. Whence hypocrites, who neglect to watch over their conduct, are said to die in a tempest.
Because such men do not do penance in their punishments, they are not freed from adversity, and so he says, "Their soul will die in torment," since they suffer diverse agonies even to death, "and their life" will fail, "among effeminate men," who do not …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Unclean - Or, Sodomites; to whose destruction, he may allude. They shall die by some exemplary stroke of Divine vengeance. Yea, and after death, their life is among the unclean, the unclean spirits, the devil and his angels, forver excluded from the new Jerusalem, into which no unclean thing shall enter.
15 He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression. 16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. 17 But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
They die in youth,.... They, or "their soul" (u); which, though that dies not, being immaterial and immortal; yet being the principal part of man, is put for the whole person, and which being taken away, the body dies.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Rather (De 23:17), Their life is (ended) as that of (literally, "among") the unclean, prematurely and dishonorably. So the second clause answers to the first.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Same sentiment as Job 36:11, 12, expanded. hypocrites--or, the ungodly [MAURER]; but "hypocrites" is perhaps a distinct class from the openly wicked (Job 36:12). heap up wrath--of God against themselves (Ro 2:5). UMBREIT translates, "nourish their wrath against God," instead of "crying" unto Him. This suits well the parallelism and the Hebrew.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They die in youth - Margin, “Their soul dieth.” The word “soul” or “life” in the Hebrew is used to denote oneself. The meaning is, that they would soon be cut down, and share the lot of the openly wicked. If they amended their lives they might be spared, and continue to live in prosperity and honor; if they did not, whether openly wicked or hypocrites. they would be early cut off. And their life is amnong the unclean - Margin, “Sodomites.” The idea is, that they would be treated in the same way as the most abandoned and vile of the race. No special favor would be shown to them because they were “professors” of religion, nor would this fact be a shield against the treatment which they deserved. They could not be classed with the righteous, and must, therefore, share the fate of the most worth mss and wicked of the race. The word rendered “unclean” (קדשׁים qâdêsh) is from קדשׁ qâdash, “to be pure or holy”; and in the Hiphil to regard as holy, to consecrate, or devote to the service of God, as e. g. a priest; Exo 28:41; Exo 29:1. Then it means to consecrate or devote to “any” service or purpose, as to an idol god. Hence, it means one consecrated or devoted to the service of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians or Venus, and as this worship was corrupt and licentious, the word means one who is licentious or corrupt compare Deu 23:18; 1Ki 14:24; Gen 38:21-22. Here it means the licentious, the corrupt, the abandoned; and the idea is, that if hypocrites did not repent under the inflictions of divine judgment, they would be dealt with in the same way as the most abandoned and vile. On the evidence that licentiousness constituted a part of the ancient worship of idols, see Spencer “de Legg. ritual Hebraedor.” Lib. ii. cap. iii. pp. 613, 614, Ed. 1732. Jerome renders this, “intereffoeminatos.” The Septuagint strangely enough has: “Let their life be wounded by angels.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
shall die by strangulation Their soul [shall die] by the strangulation that is upon them,
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
But the wicked of heart who are wicked—they bring about wrath; when suffering comes upon them, they curse and blaspheme,
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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תָּמֹ֣ת | tamot | it dies | H4191 → | 839 times |
| בַּנֹּ֣עַר | banoar | in <the> youth | H5290 → | |
| נַפְשָׁ֑ם | nafsham | self their | H5315 → | 754 times |
| וְ֝חַיָּתָ֗ם | vechaiyatam | and life their | H2416 → | 498 times |
| בַּקְּדֵשִֽׁים׃ | bakedeshim | among the temple prostitutes | H6945 → |
תָּמֹ֣תit dies
tamotH4191 →839 times
בַּנֹּ֣עַרin <the> youth
banoarH5290 →
נַפְשָׁ֑םself their
nafshamH5315 →754 times
וְ֝חַיָּתָ֗םand life their
vechaiyatamH2416 →498 times
בַּקְּדֵשִֽׁים׃among the temple prostitutes
bakedeshimH6945 →
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
Job 22:16They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
it leads to
- Job 15:32
It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 15:32
Through
Job 15:32It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish.
it leads to
- Psalms 55:23
But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ecclesiastes 7:17
Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
- Psalms 55:23
Through
Psalms 55:23But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
it leads to
- Proverbs 10:27
The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be cut short.
- Psalms 5:6
You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
- Proverbs 10:27
Through
Deuteronomy 23:17No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
it leads to
- 2 Kings 23:7
He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.
- 1 Kings 14:24
There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- Leviticus 19:29
You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.
- 2 Kings 23:7
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 XXVI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; 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.