Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, July 29th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Job 21:21

When our lives are over, do we really care whether our children are happy?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Wicked (People);   The Topic Concordance - Wickedness;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Wealth;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Pleasure;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For what does he care about his family once he is dead,when the number of his months has run out?
Hebrew Names Version
For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
King James Version
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
English Standard Version
For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
New Century Version
They do not care about the families they leave behind when their lives have come to an end.
New English Translation
For what is his interest in his home after his death, when the number of his months has been broken off?
Amplified Bible
"For what pleasure does he have in his house and family after he is dead, When the number of his months [of life] is cut off?
New American Standard Bible
"For what does he care about his household after him, When the number of his months is at an end?
World English Bible
For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
Geneva Bible (1587)
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the nomber of his moneths is cut off?
Legacy Standard Bible
For what desire does he have for his household after him,When the number of his months is cut off?
Berean Standard Bible
For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
Contemporary English Version
Because after they are dead, they won't care what happens to their children."
Complete Jewish Bible
What joy can they have in their family after them, given that their months are numbered?
Darby Translation
For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
Easy-to-Read Version
When their life is finished and they are dead, they will not care about the family they leave behind.
George Lamsa Translation
For what pleasure has he in his house after him, when a portion of his years shall be reserved for his posterity?
Lexham English Bible
for what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
Literal Translation
For what is his delight in his house after him, and his number of months is cut off.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For whath careth he, what become of his housholde after his death? whose monethes passe awaye swifter then an arowe.
American Standard Version
For what careth he for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
Bible in Basic English
For what interest has he in his house after him, when the number of his months is ended?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him? seeing the number of his months is determined.
King James Version (1611)
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his moneths is cut off in the middest?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For what careth he for his house after his death, when the number of his monethes is cut short?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For his desire is in his house with him, and the number of his months has been suddenly cut off.
English Revised Version
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For whi what perteyneth it to hym of his hows aftir hym, thouy the noumbre of his monethis be half takun awey?
Update Bible Version
For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
Webster's Bible Translation
For what pleasure [hath] he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
New King James Version
For what does he care about his household after him, When the number of his months is cut in half?
New Living Translation
For they will not care what happens to their family after they are dead.
New Life Bible
For what does he care for his house and family after he is dead, when the number of his months is over?
New Revised Standard
For what do they care for their household after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For what shall be his pleasure in his house after him, when, the number of his months, is cut in twain?
Douay-Rheims Bible
For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?
Revised Standard Version
For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
Young's Literal Translation
For what [is] his delight in his house after him, And the number of his months cut off?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For what does he care for his household after him, When the number of his months is cut off?

Contextual Overview

17 Was a wicked person's light ever put out? Did one of them ever meet with disaster? Did God ever punish the wicked in anger 18 and blow them away like straw in the wind, or like dust carried away in a storm? 19 You claim God punishes a child for the sins of his father. No! Let God punish the sinners themselves; let him show that he does it because of their sins. 20 Let sinners bear their own punishment; let them feel the wrath of Almighty God. 21 When our lives are over, do we really care whether our children are happy? 22 Can anyone teach God, who judges even those in high places? 23Some people stay healthy till the day they die; they die happy and at ease, their bodies well-nourished. < 25 Others have no happiness at all; they live and die with bitter hearts. 26 But all alike die and are buried; they all are covered with worms.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For what: Job 14:21, Ecclesiastes 2:18, Ecclesiastes 2:19, Luke 16:27, Luke 16:28

the number: Job 14:5, Psalms 55:23, Psalms 102:24

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 21:7 - General Psalms 17:14 - leave Psalms 102:23 - shortened Romans 5:1 - we have

Cross-References

Genesis 21:3
Abraham named him Isaac,
Genesis 21:4
and when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded.
Genesis 21:34
Abraham lived in Philistia for a long time.
Numbers 10:12
and the Israelites started on their journey out of the Sinai Desert. The cloud came to rest in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 12:16
Then they left Hazeroth and set up camp in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 13:3
lass="passage-text">
Numbers 13:26
lass="passage-text">
Judges 14:2
He went back home and told his father and mother, "There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her."
1 Samuel 25:1
Samuel died, and all the Israelites came together and mourned for him. Then they buried him at his home in Ramah. After this, David went to the wilderness of Paran.
1 Corinthians 7:38
So the man who marries does well, but the one who doesn't marry does even better.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For what pleasure [hath] he in his house after him,.... As, on the one hand, the prosperity of his children after his decease gives him no pleasure and delight, so, on the other hand, the calamities and distresses of his family for his sins and theirs give him no pain or uneasiness; he knows nothing that befalls them, and it is no part of his concern; and let what will befall them, he cares not for it; he feels it not, he is not sensible of it; and therefore to object that signifies nothing; see Job 14:21; or, "what business has he with his house after death?" the affairs d of his family do not at all concern him, one way or another; he is not affected with them; he can neither consider their happiness as a blessing nor their calamities as a punishment to him:

when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? the years, the months, and the days of the lives of men, are numbered and determined by the Lord, Job 14:5; which, when finished, the thread of life is cut off in the midst, from the rest of the months, which a man or his friends might have expected he would have lived; or rather, "when his number of the months is fully up" e; when the calculation of them is complete, and the full number of them is perfected; the sense is, what cares a wicked man for what befalls his family after his death, when he has lived out the full term of life in great outward happiness and prosperity; has lived to be full of days, of months, and years, to a full age, even to an age that may be truly called old age?

d So Schultens. e חצצו "integro numero calculis ducti sunt", Cocceius; "cumulatam sortem habuerint", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For what pleasure hath he ... - That is, what happiness shall he have in his family? This, it seems to me, is designed to be a reference to their sentiments, or a statement by Job of what “they” maintained. They held, that a man who was wicked, could have none of the comfort which he anticipated in his children, for he would himself be cut off in the midst of life, and taken away.

When the number of his months is cut off in the midst? - When his “life” is cut off - the word “months” here being used in the sense of “life,” or “years.” This they had maintained, that a wicked man would be punished, by being cut off in the midst of his way; compare Job 14:21.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 21:21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him — What may happen to his posterity he neither knows nor cares for, as he is now numbered with the dead, and numbered with them before he had lived out half his years. Some have translated the verse thus: "Behold how speedily God destroys the house of the wicked after him! How he shortens the number of his months!"


 
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