Lectionary Calendar
Monday, July 7th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Job 20:7

he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?'

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ambition;   Hypocrisy;   Wicked (People);   Worldliness;   The Topic Concordance - Oppression;   Perishing;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ambition;   Dreams;  

Dictionaries:

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

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dung;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
he will vanish forever like his own dung.Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”
Hebrew Names Version
Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung, Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'
King James Version
Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
English Standard Version
he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?'
New Century Version
but they will be gone forever, like their own dung. People who knew them will say, ‘Where are they?'
Amplified Bible
Yet he perishes forever like his own refuse; Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
New American Standard Bible
He perishes forever like his refuse; Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
World English Bible
Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung, Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'
Geneva Bible (1587)
Yet shall hee perish for euer, like his dung, and they which haue seene him, shall say, Where is hee?
Legacy Standard Bible
He perishes forever like his refuse;Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?'
Berean Standard Bible
he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, 'Where is he?'
Contemporary English Version
they will disappear like dust, and those who knew them will wonder what happened.
Complete Jewish Bible
but he will vanish completely, like his own dung — those who used to see him will ask, ‘Where is he?'
Darby Translation
Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Easy-to-Read Version
But he will be gone forever like his own body waste. People who knew him will say, ‘Where is he?'
George Lamsa Translation
Yet he shall perish for ever like a whirlwind; those who have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Good News Translation
but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.
Lexham English Bible
he will perish forever like his dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?'
Literal Translation
he shall perish forever like his dung; they who see him shall say, Where is he?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yet he perisheth at the last like donge: In so moch yt they which haue sene him, saye: Where is he?
American Standard Version
Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Bible in Basic English
Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung; they that have seen him shall say: 'Where is he?'
King James Version (1611)
Yet he shall perish for euer, like his owne doung: they which haue seene him, shall say, Where is he?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yet at a turne he perisheth for euer, insomuch that they which haue seene him, shall say, Where is he?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For when he shall seem to be now established, then he shall utterly perish: and they that knew him shall say, Where is he?
English Revised Version
Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
he schal be lost in the ende, as a dunghil; and, thei that sien hym, schulen seie, Where is he?
Update Bible Version
Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung: Those that have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Webster's Bible Translation
[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where [is] he?
New King James Version
Yet he will perish forever like his own refuse; Those who have seen him will say, "Where is he?'
New Living Translation
yet they will vanish forever, thrown away like their own dung. Those who knew them will ask, ‘Where are they?'
New Life Bible
he will be gone forever, like his own waste. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?'
New Revised Standard
they will perish forever like their own dung; those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?'
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Like his own stubble, shall he utterly perish, They who had seen him, shall say, Where is he?
Douay-Rheims Bible
In the end he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that had seen him, shall say: Where is he?
Revised Standard Version
he will perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
Young's Literal Translation
As his own dung for ever he doth perish, His beholders say: `Where [is] he?'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He perishes forever like his refuse; Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'

Contextual Overview

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: 2 "This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back— because of my feelings within me. 3 When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer. 4 "Surely you know that it has been from old, ever since humankind was placed on the earth, 5 that the elation of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. 6 Even though his stature reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, 7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?' 8 Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, and like a vision of the night he is put to flight. 9 People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

perish: 1 Kings 14:10, 2 Kings 9:37, Psalms 83:10, Jeremiah 8:2

shall say: Job 14:10

Reciprocal: Job 4:20 - without Job 20:9 - The eye Job 21:28 - Where Job 27:19 - he openeth Psalms 41:5 - his name Psalms 52:5 - pluck Isaiah 41:12 - shalt seek Obadiah 1:4 - exalt Malachi 2:3 - spread Philippians 3:8 - but dung

Cross-References

Genesis 2:17
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die."
Genesis 12:15
When Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram's wife was taken into the household of Pharaoh,
Genesis 12:17
But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
Genesis 20:1
Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar,
Genesis 20:2
Abraham said about his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.
Genesis 20:3
But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else's wife."
Genesis 20:4
Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, "Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation?
Genesis 20:5
Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister'? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.' I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!"
Genesis 20:6
Then in the dream God replied to him, "Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. That is why I have kept you from sinning against me and why I did not allow you to touch her.
Genesis 20:9
Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung,.... Not only in this world, but in the world to come, both in his outward substance here, and in his body in the grave, and in his soul to all eternity, and that in the most shameful and disgraceful manner; he shall perish in his own corruption, and like his own dung inevitably, which is never returned to its place again: dead bodies were reckoned by the ancients as dung, and the carcasses of men are rather to be cast out than dung i; and the Arabians used, to bury in dunghills even their kings k; to which some l think the allusion is:

they which have seen him shall say, where [is] he? such as formerly gazed at him, in his prosperity, with wonder and amazement at his grandeur and greatness, now being removed from his outward splendour, or from the world, by death, ask where he is, not being able to see him in his former lustre, nor in the land of the living; see Job 14:10.

i Heraclitus apud Strabo. Geograph. l. 16. p. 539. k Strabo, ib. l Pineda in loc.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 20:7. He shall perish for ever — He is dust, and shall return to the dust from which he was taken. Zophar here hints his disbelief in that doctrine, the resurrection of the body, which Job had so solemnly asserted in the preceding chapter. Or he might have been like some in the present day, who believe that the wicked shall be annihilated, and the bodies of the righteous only be raised from the dead; but I know of no scripture by which such a doctrine is confirmed.

Like his own dung — His reputation shall be abominable, and his putrid carcass shall resemble his own excrement. A speech that partakes as much of the malevolence as of the asperity of Zophar's spirit.


 
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