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Sunday, July 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Green's Literal Translation

Job 6:18

The paths of their way bend; they go to nothing and are lost.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Scofield Reference Index - Inspiration;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - River;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Contrite;   Greatness of God;   Sanctification;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Merchant;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Caravan;   Chaos;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Job;   Trade and Commerce;   Wilderness, Desert;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Commerce;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Caravan;   Desert;   Job, Book of;   Nothing;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Caravans turn away from their routes,go up into the desert, and perish.
Hebrew Names Version
The caravans that travel beside them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.
King James Version
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
English Standard Version
The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.
New Century Version
Travelers turn away from their paths and go into the desert and die.
New English Translation
Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish.
Amplified Bible
"The paths of their course wind along, They go up into nothing and perish. [Your counsel is as helpful to me as a dry streambed in the heat of summer.]
New American Standard Bible
"The paths of their course wind along, They go up into wasteland and perish.
World English Bible
The caravans that travel beside them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Or they depart from their way and course, yea, they vanish and perish.
Legacy Standard Bible
The paths of their course wind along;They go up into a formless place and perish.
Berean Standard Bible
Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish.
Contemporary English Version
I am like a caravan, lost in the desert while searching for water.
Complete Jewish Bible
Their courses turn this way and that; they go up into the confusing waste and are lost.
Darby Translation
They wind about in the paths of their course, they go off into the waste and perish.
Easy-to-Read Version
It twists and turns along the way and then disappears into the desert.
George Lamsa Translation
The paths of their ways are winding; they go astray from their course and perish.
Good News Translation
Caravans get lost looking for water; they wander and die in the desert.
Lexham English Bible
The paths of their way wind around; they go up into the wasteland, and they perish.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for the pathes yt they go in, are croked: they haist after vayne thinges, and shal perish.
American Standard Version
The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.
Bible in Basic English
The camel-trains go out of their way; they go up into the waste and come to destruction.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They depart from the course of their wonted chanell to other places, they runne in vayne and perishe.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The paths of their way do wind, they go up into the waste, and are lost.
King James Version (1611)
The pathes of their way are turned aside; they goe to nothing, and perish.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast.
English Revised Version
The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; they go up into the waste, and perish.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The pathis of her steppis ben wlappid; thei schulen go in veyn, and schulen perische.
Update Bible Version
The caravans [that travel] by the way of them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.
Webster's Bible Translation
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
New King James Version
The paths of their way turn aside, They go nowhere and perish.
New Living Translation
The caravans turn aside to be refreshed, but there is nothing to drink, so they die.
New Life Bible
The people on their camels turn away from them. They go into the waste places and die.
New Revised Standard
The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste, and perish.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Caravans turn aside by their course, they go up into a waste, and are lost:
Douay-Rheims Bible
The paths of their steps are entangled: they shall walk in vain, and shall perish.
Revised Standard Version
The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste, and perish.
Young's Literal Translation
Turn aside do the paths of their way, They ascend into emptiness, and are lost.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The paths of their course wind along, They go up into nothing and perish.

Contextual Overview

14 To the faint, mercy is due from his friend; for he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brothers have dealt deceitfully, like the torrent, like the streams of torrents, they pass away; 16 those darkened from ice, in which the snow hides itself. 17 At the time they are warmed, they are cut off; when it is hot they dry up. 18 The paths of their way bend; they go to nothing and are lost. 19 The troops of Tema looked; the travelers of Sheba hoped for them; 20 they were ashamed because they had hoped; they came there and were ashamed. 21 Surely now you have become like it; you see my dismay, and are afraid.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 10:24 - lest

Cross-References

Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah. Noah, a righteous man, had been perfected among his family. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:16
You shall make a window in the ark, and you shall finish it above to a cubit. And you shall set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third stories.
Genesis 7:1
And Jehovah said to Noah, You and all your house come into the ark, for I have seen you righteous before Me in this generation.
Genesis 7:7
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:13
In this same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark;
Genesis 17:4
As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
Genesis 17:7
And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and your seed after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.
Genesis 17:21
And I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.
Isaiah 26:20
Come, My people, go in your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide for a little moment, until the fury passes.
Hebrews 11:7
Being divinely warned by God about the things not yet having been seen, moved with fear, by faith Noah prepared an ark for the salvation of his house; through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness according to faith.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The paths of their way are turned aside,.... That is, the waters, when melted by the heat of the sun, and the warmth of the weather, run, some one way, and some another in little streams and windings, till they are quite lost and the tracks of them are no more to be seen; denoting that all appearance of friendship was quite gone, and no traces of it to be found:

they go to nothing, and perish: some of them are lost in little meanders and windings about, and others are exhaled by the heat of the sun, and go into "Tohu", as the word is, into empty air; so vain and empty, and perishing, were all the comforts he hoped for from his friends; though some understand this of the paths of travellers in the deserts being covered in the sand, and not to be seen and found; of which see Pliny z.

z Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 29.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The paths of their way are turned aside - Noyes renders this, “The caravans turn aside to them on their way.” Good, “The outlets of their channel wind about.” Rosenmuller, “The bands of travelers direct their journey to them.” Jerome, “Involved are the paths of their steps.” According to the interpretation of Rosenmuller, Noyes, Umbreit, and others, it means that the caravans on their journey turn aside from their regular way in order to find water there; and that in doing it they go up into a desert and perish. According to the other interpretation, it means that the channels of the stream wind along until they diminish and come to nothing. This latter I take to be the true sense of the passage, as it is undoubtedly the most poetical. It is a representation of the stream winding along in its channels, or making new channels as it flows from the mountain, until it diminishes by evaporation, and finally comes to nothing.

They go to nothing - Noyes renders this very singularly, “into the desert,” - meaning that the caravans, when they suppose they are going to a place of refreshment, actually go to a desert, and thus perish. The word used here, however תהוּ tôhû, does not occur in the sense of a desert elsewhere in the Scriptures. It denotes nothingness, emptiness, vanity (see Genesis 1:2), and very appropriately expresses the nothingness into which a stream vanishes when it is dried up or lost in the sand. The sense is, that those streams wander along until they become smaller and smaller, and then wholly disappear. They deceive the traveler who hoped to find refreshment there. Streams depending on snows and storms, and having no permanent fountains, cannot be confided in. Pretended friends are like them. In times of prosperity they are full of professions, and their aid is proffered to us. But we go to them when we need their assistance, when we are like the weary and thirsty traveler, and they disappear like deceitful streams in the sands of the desert.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 6:18. The paths of their way — They sometimes forsake their ancient channels, which is a frequent case with the river Ganges; and growing smaller and smaller from being divided into numerous streams, they go to nothing and perish - are at last utterly lost in the sands.


 
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