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Monday, August 25th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

New Century Version

Job 14:11

Water disappears from a lake, and a river loses its water and dries up.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Dead (People);   Death;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Job;   Sea;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Decrees of God;   Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Job;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Decay;   Eschatology of the Old Testament (with Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Writings);   Job, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
As water disappears from a lakeand a river becomes parched and dry,
Hebrew Names Version
As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wastes and dries up,
King James Version
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
English Standard Version
As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,
New English Translation
As water disappears from the sea, or a river drains away and dries up,
Amplified Bible
"As water evaporates from the sea, And a river drains and dries up,
New American Standard Bible
"As water evaporates from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dried up,
World English Bible
As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wastes and dries up,
Geneva Bible (1587)
As the waters passe from the sea, and as the flood decayeth and dryeth vp,
Legacy Standard Bible
As water evaporates from the sea,And a river becomes parched and dried up,
Berean Standard Bible
As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,
Contemporary English Version
We are like streams and lakes after the water has gone;
Complete Jewish Bible
Just as water in a lake disappears, as a river shrinks and dries up;
Darby Translation
The waters recede from the lake, and the river wasteth and drieth up:
Easy-to-Read Version
Like a lake that goes dry or a river that loses its source,
George Lamsa Translation
As the waters fail from the sea, and a river becomes desolate and dries up;
Good News Translation
Like rivers that stop running, and lakes that go dry,
Lexham English Bible
As water disappears from a lake, and a river withers away and dries up,
Literal Translation
As the waters go away from the sea, and a river wastes away and dries up,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The floudes when they be dryed vp, & the ryuers when they be emptie, are fylled agayne thorow the flowinge waters of the see:
American Standard Version
As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wasteth and drieth up;
Bible in Basic English
The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste and dry;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
As the waters fail from the sea, and the river is drained dry;
King James Version (1611)
As the waters faile from the sea, and the floud decayeth and dryeth vp:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
As the waters passe from the sea, and as the flood decayeth and dryeth vp:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For the sea wastes in length of time, and a river fails and is dried up.
English Revised Version
As the waters fail from the sea, and the river decayeth and drieth up;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
As if watris goen awei fro the see, and a ryuer maad voide wexe drie,
Update Bible Version
[As] the waters fail from the sea, And the river wastes and dries up;
Webster's Bible Translation
[As] the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
New King James Version
As water disappears from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dries up,
New Living Translation
As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought,
New Life Bible
As water goes into the air from the sea, and the river wastes away and dries up,
New Revised Standard
As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Waters, have failed from, the sea, and, a river, may waste and dry up;
Douay-Rheims Bible
As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up;
Revised Standard Version
As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up,
Young's Literal Translation
Waters have gone away from a sea, And a river becometh waste and dry.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"As water evaporates from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dried up,

Contextual Overview

7 "If a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will grow again and will send out new branches. 8 Even if its roots grow old in the ground, and its stump dies in the dirt, 9 at the smell of water it will bud and put out new shoots like a plant. 10 But we die, and our bodies are laid in the ground; we take our last breath and are gone. 11 Water disappears from a lake, and a river loses its water and dries up. 12 In the same way, we lie down and do not rise again; we will not get up or be awakened until the heavens disappear. 13 "I wish you would hide me in the grave; hide me until your anger is gone. I wish you would set a time and then remember me! 14 Will the dead live again? All my days are a struggle; I will wait until my change comes. 15 You will call, and I will answer you; you will desire the creature your hands have made.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the flood: Job 6:15-18, Jeremiah 15:18

Cross-References

Genesis 12:5
He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and everything they owned, as well as all the servants they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan, and in time they arrived there.
Genesis 14:16
Then Abram brought back everything the enemy had stolen, the women and the other people, and Lot, and everything Lot owned.
Genesis 14:21
The king of Sodom said to Abram, "You may keep all these things for yourself. Just give me my people who were captured."
Deuteronomy 28:31
Your ox will be killed before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you, and it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you.
Deuteronomy 28:35
The Lord will give you sore boils on your knees and legs that cannot be cured, and they will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads.
Deuteronomy 28:51
They will eat the calves from your herds and the harvest of your field, and you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil, or any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will be ruined.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[As] the waters fail from the sea,.... the words may be rendered either without the as, and denote dissimilitude, and the sense be, that the waters go from the sea and return again, as with the tide:

and the flood decays and dries up; and yet is supplied again with water: "but man lieth down, and riseth not again", Job 14:12; or else with the as, and express likeness; as the waters when they fail from the sea, or get out of lakes, and into another channel, never return more; and as a flood, occasioned by the waters of a river overflowing its banks, never return into it more; so man, when he dies, never returns to this world any more. The Targum restrains this to the Red sea, and the parting of that and the river Jordan, and the drying up of that before the ark of the Lord, and the return of both to their places again.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As the waters fail from the sea - As the waters evaporate wholly, and leave the bottom wholly dry, so it is with man, who passes entirely away, and leaves nothing. But to what fact Job refers here, is not known. The sea or ocean has never been dried up, so as to furnish a ground for this comparison. Noyes renders it, “the lake.” Dr. Good, without the slightest authority, renders it, “as the billows pass away with the tides.” Herder supposes it to mean that until the waters fail from the sea man will not rise again, but the Hebrew will not bear this interpretation. Probably the true interpretation is, that which makes the word rendered sea (ים yâm) refer to a lake, or a stagnant pool; see Isaiah 11:15, note; Isaiah 19:5, note. The word is applied not unfrequently to a lake, as to the lake of Genesareth, Numbers 34:11; to the Dead Sea, Genesis 14:3; Deuteronomy 4:49; Zechariah 14:8. It is used, also, to denote the Nile, Isaiah 19:5, and the Euphrates, Isaiah 27:1. It is also employed to denote the brass sea that was made by Solomon, and placed in front of the temple; 2 Kings 25:13. I see no reason to doubt, therefore, that it may be used here to denote the collections of water, which were made by torrents pouring down from the mountains, and which would after a little while wholly evaporate.

And the flood decayeth - The river - נהר nâhâr. Such an occurrence would be common in the parched countries of the East; see the notes at Job 6:15 ff. As such torrents vanish wholly away, so it was with man. Every vestige disappeared; compare 2 Samuel 14:14.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 14:11. The waters fail from the sea — I believe this refers to evaporation, and nothing else. As the waters are evaporated from the sea, and the river in passing over the sandy desert is partly exsiccated, and partly absorbed; and yet the waters of the sea are not exhausted, as these vapours, being condensed, fall down in rain, and by means of rivers return again into the sea: so man is imperceptibly removed from his fellows by death and dissolution; yet the human race is still continued, the population of the earth being kept up by perpetual generations.


 
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