the Week of Proper 13 / Ordinary 18
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JPS Old Testament
Job 21:11
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They let their little ones run around like lambs;their children skip about,
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.
They send out their children like a flock; their little ones dance about.
They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about.
"They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children skip about.
"They send out their boys like the flock, And their children dance.
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
They send forth their children like sheepe, and their sonnes dance.
They send forth their little ones like the flock,And their children skip about.
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
their children play and dance safely by themselves.
They produce flocks of babies, and their children dance around.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
They send their children out to play like lambs. Their children dance around.
Their children stand firm like a flock, and their boys dance.
Their children run and play like lambs
They send out their little ones like the flock, and their children dance around.
They send their little ones out as a flock; and their children dance.
They sende forth their children by flockes, and their sonnes lede the daunce.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance,
They send foorth their little ones like a flocke, and their children dance.
They sende foorth their children by flockes, & their sonnes [leade the] daunce.
And they remain as an unfailing flock, and their children play before them, taking up the psaltery and harp;
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Her litle children goen out as flockis; and her yonge children `maken fulli ioye with pleies.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance.
They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children jump around.
They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around.
They send forth - like a flock - their young ones, and, their children, skip about for joy;
Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
They send forth as a flock their sucklings, And their children skip,
"They send forth their little ones like the flock, And their children skip about.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Psalms 107:41, Psalms 127:3-5
Reciprocal: Genesis 31:27 - with mirth Job 27:14 - children Job 36:11 - spend Ecclesiastes 2:8 - musical instruments Ecclesiastes 8:11 - sentence Isaiah 5:12 - the harp Isaiah 14:11 - pomp Isaiah 21:4 - the night Isaiah 30:32 - every place Amos 6:5 - to the Luke 6:25 - mourn Luke 12:19 - take Luke 16:19 - clothed 1 Timothy 5:6 - she Hebrews 11:25 - the pleasures James 5:5 - have lived
Cross-References
And Abraham said unto God: 'Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!'
And the LORD remembered Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as He had spoken.
And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
span data-lang="eng" data-trans="jps" data-ref="2sa.18.1" class="versetxt"> And David numbered the people that were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. And David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto the people: 'I will surely go forth with you myself also.' But the people said: 'Thou shalt not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us; but thou art worth ten thousand of us: therefore now it is better that thou be ready to succour us out of the city.' And the king said unto them: 'What seemeth you best I will do.' And the king stood by the gate-side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying: 'Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom.' And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom. So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim. And the people of Israel were smitten there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. And Absalom was riding upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth, and his head caught hold of the terebinth, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said: 'Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth.' And Joab said unto the man that told him: 'And, behold, thou sawest it, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have had to give thee ten pieces of silver, and a girdle.' And the man said unto Joab: 'Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, yet would I not put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying: Beware that none touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against mine own life--and there is no matter hid from the king--then thou thyself wouldest have stood aloof.' Then said Joab: 'I may not tarry thus with thee.' And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the terebinth. And ten young men that bore Joab's armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him. And Joab blew the horn, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held back the people. And they took Absalom, and cast him into the great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones; and all Israel fled every one to his tent.-- Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said: 'I have no son to keep my name in remembrance'; and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom's monument unto this day. Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok: 'Let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that the LORD hath avenged him of his enemies.' And Joab said unto him: 'Thou shalt not be the bearer of tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day; but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, forasmuch as the king's son is dead.' Then said Joab to the Cushite: 'Go tell the king what thou hast seen.' And the Cushite bowed down unto Joab, and ran. Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab: 'But come what may, let me, I pray thee, also run after the Cushite.' And Joab said: 'Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou wilt have no reward for the tidings?' 'But come what may, [said he,] I will run.' And he said unto him: 'Run.' Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and overran the Cushite. Now David sat between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a man running alone. And the watchman cried, and told the king. And the king said: 'If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth.' And he came apace, and drew near. And the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called unto the porter, and said: 'Behold another man running alone.' And the king said: 'He also bringeth tidings.' And the watchman said: 'I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.' And the king said: 'He is a good man, and cometh with good tidings.' And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the king: 'All is well.' And he bowed down before the king with his face to the earth, and said: 'Blessed be the LORD thy God, who hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my lord the king.' And the king said: 'Is it well with the young man Absalom?' And Ahimaaz answered: 'When Joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was.' And the king said: 'Turn aside, and stand here.' And he turned aside, and stood still. And, behold, the Cushite came; and the Cushite said: 'Tidings for my lord the king; for the LORD hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee.' And the king said unto the Cushite: 'Is it well with the young man Absalom?' And the Cushite answered: 'The enemies of my lord the king and all that rise up against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is.'
Gill's Notes on the Bible
They send forth their little ones like a flock,.... Of sheep, which are creatures very increasing, and become very numerous,
Psalms 144:13; to which a large increase of families may be compared,
Psalms 107:41, for this is not to be interpreted of their kine sending or bringing forth such numbers as to be like a flock of sheep; but of the families of wicked men being increased in like manner; and the sending them forth to be understood either of the birth of their children being sent out or proceeding from them as plants out of the earth, or branches from a tree; or of their being sent out not to school to be instructed in useful learning, but into the streets to play, and pipe, and dance; and it may denote, as their number, so their being left to themselves, and being at liberty to do as they please, being under no restriction, nor any care taken of their education; at least in such a manner as to have a tendency to make them sober, virtuous, and useful in life:
and their children dance; either in a natural way, skip and frisk, and play like calves and lambs, and so are very diverting to their parents, as well as shows them to be in good health; which adds to their parents happiness and pleasure: or in an artificial way, being taught to dance; and it should be observed, it is "their" children, the children of the wicked, and not of the godly, that are thus brought up; so Abraham did not train up his children, nor Job his; no instance can be given of the children of good men being trained up in this manner, or of their dancing in an irreligious way; however, this proves in what a jovial way, and in what outward prosperity and pleasure, wicked men and their families live; which is the thing Job has in view, and is endeavouring to prove and establish.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
They send forth their little ones - Their numerous and happy children they send forth to plays and pastimes.
Like a flock - In great numbers. This is an exquisitely beautiful image of prosperity. What can be more so than a group of happy children around a man’s dwelling?
And their children dance - Dance for joy. They are playful and sportive, like the lambs of the flock. It is the skip of playfulness and exultation that is referred to here, and not the set and formal dance where children are instructed in the art; the sportiveness of children in the fields, the woods, and on the lawn, and not the set step taught in the dancing-school. The word used here (רקד râqad), means “to leap, to skip” - as from joy, and then to dance. Jerome has well rendered it, “exultant lusibus” - “they leap about in their plays.” So the Septuagint, προσπαίζουσιν prospaizousin - “they frolic” or “play.” There is no evidence here that Job meant to say that they taught their children to dance; that they caused them to be trained in anything that now corresponds to dancing-schools; and that he meant to say that such a training was improper and tended to exclude God from the heart.
The image is one simply of health, abundance, exuberance of feeling, cheerfulness, prosperity. The houses were free from alarms; the fields were filled with herds and flocks, and their families of happy and playful children were around them. The object of Job was not to say that all this was in itself wrong, but that it was a plain matter of fact that God did not take away the comforts of all the wicked and overwhelm them with calamity. Of the impropriety of training children in a dancing-school, there ought to be but one opinion among the friends of religion (see National Preacher for January 1844), but there is no evidence that Job referred to any such training here, “and” this passage should not be adduced to prove that dancing is wrong. It refers to the playfulness and the cheerful sports of children, and God has made them so that they “will” find pleasure in such sports, and so that they are benefited by them. There is not a more lovely picture of happiness and of the benevolence of God any where on earth than in such groups of children, and in their sportiveness and playfulness there is no more that is wrong than there is in the gambols of the lambs of the flock.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 21:11. They send forth their little ones — It is not very clear whether this refers to the young of the flocks or to their children. The first clause may mean the former, the next clause the latter; while the young of their cattle are in flocks, their numerous children are healthy and vigorous, and dance for joy.
