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Monday, December 22nd, 2025
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The NET Bible®

Job 8:12

While they are still beginning to flower and not ripe for cutting, they can wither away faster than any grass!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Forgetting God;   Godlessness;   The Topic Concordance - Bearing Fruit;   Endurance;   Forgetting;   Hope;   Hypocrisy;   Perishing;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Forgetting God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Bildad;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Leek;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Sirach;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Leek;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bildad;   Job, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
While still uncut shoots,they would dry up quicker than any other plant.
Hebrew Names Version
While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, It withers before any other reed.
King James Version
Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
English Standard Version
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
New Century Version
While they are still growing and not yet cut, they will dry up quicker than grass.
Amplified Bible
"While it is still green (in flower) and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant [when without water].
New American Standard Bible
"While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.
World English Bible
While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, It withers before any other reed.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Though it were in greene and not cutte downe, yet shall it wither before any other herbe.
Legacy Standard Bible
While it is still green and not cut down,Yet it dries up before any other plant.
Berean Standard Bible
While the shoots are still uncut, they dry up quicker than grass.
Contemporary English Version
and if the water dries up, they die sooner than grass.
Complete Jewish Bible
While still green, before being cut down, it dries up faster than any other plant.
Darby Translation
Whilst it is yet in its greenness [and] not cut down, it withereth before any [other] grass.
Easy-to-Read Version
No, they will dry up before harvest. They will be too small to cut and use.
George Lamsa Translation
While they are yet in their greenness, and not cut down, they wither before any other herb.
Good News Translation
If the water dries up, they are the first to wither, while still too small to be cut and used.
Lexham English Bible
While it is in its flower and is not plucked, yet it withers before all grass.
Literal Translation
While it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it dries out before every plant.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
No: but (or euer it be shot forth, and or euer it be gathered) it wythereth, before eny other herbe.
American Standard Version
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, It withereth before any other herb.
Bible in Basic English
When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
King James Version (1611)
Whilest it is yet in his greennesse, and not cut downe, it withereth before any other herbe.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
No, but whilste it is nowe in his greennesse, though it be not cut downe, yet withereth it before any other hearbe:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
When it is yet on the root, and though it has not been cut down, does not any herb wither before it has received moisture?
English Revised Version
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whanne it is yit in the flour, nethir is takun with hond, it wexeth drie bifor alle erbis.
Update Bible Version
While it is yet in its greenness, [and] not cut down, It withers before any [other] herb.
Webster's Bible Translation
Whilst it [is] yet in its greenness, [and] not cut down, it withereth before any [other] herb.
New King James Version
While it is yet green and not cut down, It withers before any other plant.
New Living Translation
While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither more quickly than grass.
New Life Bible
While it is still green and not cut, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.
New Revised Standard
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Though while still, in its freshness, it be not plucked off, yet, before any kind of grass, it doth wither:
Douay-Rheims Bible
When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked u with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
Revised Standard Version
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
Young's Literal Translation
While it [is] in its budding -- uncropt, Even before any herb it withereth.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.

Contextual Overview

8 "For inquire now of the former generation, and pay attention to the findings of their ancestors; 9 For we were born yesterday and do not have knowledge, since our days on earth are but a shadow. 10 Will they not instruct you and speak to you, and bring forth words from their understanding? 11 Can the papyrus plant grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish without water? 12 While they are still beginning to flower and not ripe for cutting, they can wither away faster than any grass! 13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; the hope of the godless perishes, 14 whose trust is in something futile, whose security is a spider's web. 15 He leans against his house but it does not hold up, he takes hold of it but it does not stand. 16 He is a well-watered plant in the sun, its shoots spread over its garden. 17 It wraps its roots around a heap of stones and it looks for a place among stones.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 129:6, Psalms 129:7, Jeremiah 17:6, Matthew 13:20, James 1:10, James 1:11, 1 Peter 1:24

Reciprocal: Esther 5:12 - to morrow

Cross-References

Genesis 8:2
The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain stopped falling from the sky.
Genesis 8:3
The waters kept receding steadily from the earth, so that they had gone down by the end of the 150 days.
Genesis 8:5
The waters kept on receding until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
Genesis 8:6
At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
Genesis 8:7
and sent out a raven; it kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.
Genesis 8:8
Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
Genesis 8:10
He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark.
Psalms 27:14
Rely on the Lord ! Be strong and confident! Rely on the Lord !
Isaiah 8:17
I will wait patiently for the Lord , who has rejected the family of Jacob; I will wait for him.
Isaiah 25:9
At that time they will say, "Look, here is our God! We waited for him and he delivered us. Here is the Lord ! We waited for him. Let's rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Whilst it [is] yet in its greenness,.... Before it is come to its full height, or to a proper ripeness; when as yet it has not flowered, or is about it; before the time usual for it to turn and change; it being without moisture, water, or watery clay, will change;

[and] not cut down; by the scythe, or cropped by the hand of man,

it withereth before any [other] herb; of itself; rather sooner than such that do not require so much moisture; or in the sight and presence of them, they looking on as it were, and deriding it; a poetical representation, as Schultens observes: next follows the accommodation of these similes to wicked and hypocritical men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whilst it is yet in his greenness - That is, while it seems to be in its vigor.

And is not cut down - Even when it is not cut down. If suffered to stand by itself, and if undisturbed, it will wither away. The application of this is obvious and beautiful. Such plants have no self sustaining power. They are dependent on moisture for their support. If that is withheld, they droop and die. So with the prosperous sinner and the hypocrite. His piety, compared with that which is genuine, is like the spongy texture of the paper-reed compared with the solid oak. He is sustained in his professed religion by outward prosperity, as the rush is nourished by moisture; and the moment his prosperity is withdrawn, his religion droops and dies like the flag without water.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 8:12. Whilst it is yet in his greenness — We do not know enough of the natural history of this plant to be able to discern the strength of this allusion; but we learn from it that, although this plant be very succulent, and grow to a great size, yet it is short-lived, and speedily withers; and this we may suppose to be in the dry season, or on the retreat of the waters of the Nile. However, Soon RIPE, soon ROTTEN, is a maxim in horticulture.


 
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