Job 29:18

New King James Version

"Then I said, "I shall die in my nest, And multiply my days as the sand.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So I thought, “I will die in my own nestand multiply my days as the sand.

Hebrew Names Version
Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.

King James Version
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

English Standard Version
Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

New Century Version
"I thought, ‘I will live for as many days as there are grains of sand, and I will die in my own house.

New English Translation
"Then I thought, ‘I will die in my own home, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

Amplified Bible
"Then I said, 'I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

New American Standard Bible
"Then I thought, 'I will die with my family, And I will multiply my days as the sand.

World English Bible
Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then I sayde, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiplie my dayes as the sand.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then I said, ‘I will breathe my last in my nest,And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

Berean Standard Bible
So I thought: 'I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.

Contemporary English Version
I felt certain that I would live a long and happy life, then die in my own bed.

Complete Jewish Bible
"I said, ‘I will die with my nest, and I will live as long as a phoenix;

Darby Translation
And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;

Easy-to-Read Version
"I always thought I would live a long life, growing old with my family around me.

George Lamsa Translation
Then I said, I shall become straight like a reed, I shall deliver the poor and multiply my days like the sand of the seas.

Good News Translation
I always expected to live a long life and to die at home in comfort.

Lexham English Bible
"And I thought, ‘I will pass away in my nest, and like the phoenix I shall multiply my days.

Literal Translation
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply days like the sand.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore, I thought verely, yt I shulde haue dyed in my nest: & yt my dayes shulde haue bene as many as the sondes of the see.

American Standard Version
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand:

Bible in Basic English
Then I said, I will come to my end with my children round me, my days will be as the sand in number;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Then I said: 'I shall die with my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix;

King James Version (1611)
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiplie my dayes as the sand.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Then I sayde, I shall die in my nest: and I shall multiplie my dayes as the sande.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I said, My age shall continue as the stem of a palm-tree; I shall live a long while.

English Revised Version
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y seide, Y schal die in my nest; and as a palm tre Y schal multiplie daies.

Update Bible Version
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand:

Webster's Bible Translation
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply [my] days as the sand.

New Living Translation
"I thought, ‘Surely I will die surrounded by my family after a long, good life.

New Life Bible
Then I thought, ‘I will die in my nest. My days will be as many as the sand.

New Revised Standard
Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then said I, Like a stem, shall I grow old, yea, as the sand, shall I multiply days:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I said: I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall multiply my days.

Revised Standard Version
Then I thought, 'I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

Young's Literal Translation
And I say, `With my nest I expire, And as the sand I multiply days.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Then I thought, 'I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ "Then I said, "I shall die in my nest, And multiply my days as the sand. ¹⁹ My root is spread out to the waters, And the dew lies all night on my branch. ²⁰ My glory is fresh within me, And my bow is renewed in my hand.' ²¹ "Men listened to me and waited, And kept silence for my counsel. ²² After my words they did not speak again, And my speech settled on them as dew. ²³ They waited for me as for the rain, And they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain. ²⁴ If I mocked at them, they did not believe it, And the light of my countenance they did not cast down. ²⁵ I chose the way for them, and sat as chief; So I dwelt as a king in the army, As one who comforts mourners.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I shall die: Psalms 30:6, Psalms 30:7, Jeremiah 22:23, Jeremiah 49:16, Obadiah 1:4, Habakkuk 2:9

multiply: Job 5:26, Job 42:16, Job 42:17, Psalms 91:16

as the sand: Genesis 32:12, Genesis 41:49

Reciprocal: Numbers 24:21 - the Kenites Job 16:12 - at ease Job 30:26 - When I looked Isaiah 38:17 - for peace I had great bitterness Habakkuk 1:9 - they shall gather

Cross-References

Genesis 29:16
Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

Genesis 29:17
Leah's eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance.

Genesis 29:20
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.

Genesis 29:30
Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years.

Genesis 31:41
Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

Genesis 34:12
Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife."

2 Samuel 3:14
So David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines."

Hosea 3:2
So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.

Hosea 12:12
Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, And for a wife he tended sheep.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then I said, I shall die in my nest,.... Job, amidst all his prosperity, knew he should die, death and the grave being appointed for all men; and he often thought of it, and of the manner of it; but he concluded that death was as yet some distance from him, as appears from the following clause; and that, when the time was come, he should not die on the ground, but in the city in which he lived m, in his house, and on his bed; that he should die with all his children about him, like a bird in its nest full of young; whereas now he was stripped of them all, and likely to die childless; that he should die amidst all his outward enjoyments, in an affluence of good things, in honour, credit, and esteem among men; whereas now he was deprived of all his substance, and had in contempt by friends and foes; and that he should die in great tranquillity of mind and peace of soul, in the enjoyment of the divine Presence, and under rich discoveries of his love and grace; whereas now God had hid himself from him, and the arrows of the Almighty stuck fast in him. Job now had dropped his former confidence, and yet after all he did die in all the circumstances he believed he should; see Job 42:10; and this confidence might rise not from any mercenary spirit in him, as if this would be the fruit and reward of his integrity and uprightness, justice and faithfulness, and as due to him on that account; but from the promises of God, which to the patriarchs were usually of temporal blessings, as types of spiritual ones; though it may be there was in this somewhat of the infirmity of the flesh, as in David, Psalms 30:7; and an inattention to the uncertainty of all temporal enjoyments; nor might he then be so well acquainted with the doctrine of the cross he now had an experience of:

and I shall multiply [my] days as the sand; which is not to be numbered; an hyperbolical expression, to denote the long life he expected to enjoy, and which was promised to good men; and which Job, notwithstanding his present despair of it, was favoured and satisfied with, Psalms 91:16. Some versions render it, "as the phoenix" n, a bird of that name, spoken of by many writers as a very long lived one; some say it lived five hundred years o, others five hundred forty p, others six hundred sixty q; yea, some, and so the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and others r, make it to live a thousand years, and some say s more; and it is reported of it, though not with sufficient evidence, that there is never but one of the kind at a time; which, perceiving its end drawing near, it makes a nest of cassia, frankincense, and other spices, and sets fire to it, and burns itself in it, and that out of its ashes comes forth an egg, which produces another; and some of the ancient writers, as Tertullian t particularly, have made use of this as an emblem of the resurrection; and to which some think Job has here respect; that he should live long like this bird, and then die and rise again; but inasmuch as this seems to be a fabulous bird, and that there is not, nor ever was, any such in being, it cannot well be thought that Job should allude unto it; though his making mention of his nest, in the former clause, may seem to favour it, and which has induced some to give into it u: others render it, "as the palm tree" w; between which and the phoenix there is thought to be some likeness on account of duration x, and both in the Greek tongue have the same name; the palm tree is an evergreen, and endures a long time; Pliny y speaks of a palm tree in his time at Delos, said to have been there from the days of Apollo, which is supposed to be 1400 years; and it is observed z that this tree does continue two or three hundred years; and this version may seem to be countenanced and confirmed by what follows: but since the Hebrew word here used is never used but of sand, it is best so to understand it here, seeing it as fully answers Job's purpose; which was to express his confidence of a very long life. Sand is frequently used in Scripture for what is innumerable; so ψαμμοκοσια in Aristophanes a, for what cannot be numbered, and are equal to a mountain of sand.

m So Rufus Virginius used to call the villa where he dwelt, "Senectutio suae Nidulum", Plin. l. 6. Ep. 10. n כחול "sicut phoenix", Pagninus; so Mercerus, Piscator. o Herodot Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 73. Pompon. Mela de situ Orbis, l. 6. c. 58. Tacit. Annal. l. 6. c. 28. p Solin. Polyhistor. c. 46. q Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 2. r Bereshit Rabba, sect. 19. fol. 15. 2. Yalkut in loc. par. 1. fol. 152. 2. s Vid. Texelii Phoenix. l. 2. c. 1. p. 140. t De Resurrectione, c. 13. Vid. Clement. Rom. Ep. 1. ad Corinth. p. 60. & Felli Not. in ib. u Vid. Tentzelii Dissert. de Phoenice, &c. sect. 5. w ωσπερ στελεχος φοινικος, Sept. "sicut palma", V. L. x Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 4. y Ib. l. 16. c. 44. z Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. l. vol. 4. p. 757. a Acharnes Act. 1. Sc. 1. & Scholia in ib.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Then I said - So prosperous was I, and so permanent seemed my sources of happiness. I saw no reason why all this should not continue, and why the same respect and honor should not attend me to the grave.

I shall die in my nest - I shall remain where I am, and in my present comforts, while I live. I shall then die surrounded by my family and friends, and encompassed with honors. A “nest” is an image of quietness, harmlessness, and comfort. So Spenser speaks of a nest:

Fayre bosome! fraught with virtue’s richest tresure,

The neast of love, the lodging of delight,

The bowre of bliss, the paradise of pleasure.

Sonnet LXXVI

The image here expresses the firm hope of a long life, and of a peaceful and tranquil death. The Septuagint renders it, “My age shall grow old like the trunk of a palm tree” - στέλεχος φοίνικος stelechos phoinikos - I shall live long; compare Bochart, Hieroz. P. ii. Lib. vi. c. v. p. 820, for the reason of this translation.

And I shall multiply my days as the sand - Herder renders this, “the Phoenix;” and observes that the Phoenix is obviously intended here, only through a double sense of the word, the figure of the bird is immediately changed for that of the palm-tree. The rabbis generally understand by the word here rendered “sand” (חול chôl) the Phoenix - a fabulous bird, much celebrated in ancient times. Osaia in the book “Bereshith Rabba,” or Commentary on Genesis, says of this bird, “that all animals obeyed the woman (in eating the forbidden fruit) except one bird only by the name of חול chûl, concerning which it is said in Job, ‘I will multiply my days as the כחול k^echûl.’” Jannai adds to this, that “this bird lives a thousand years, and in the end of the thousand years, a fire goes forth from its nest, and burns it up, but there remains, as it were, an egg, from which again the members grow, and it rises to life:” compare Nonnus in Dionys. Lib. 40. Martial, Claudian, and others in Bochart, Hieroz. P. ii. Lib. vi. c. v. pp. 818-825. But the more correct rendering is, doubtless, the common one, and it is usual in the Scriptures to denote a great, indefinite number, by the sand; Genesis 22:17; Judges 7:12; Habakkuk 1:9. A comparison similar to this occurs in Ovid, Metam. Lib. xiv. 136ff:

- Ego pulveris hausti

Ostendens cumulum, quot haberet corpora pulvis,

Tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi.

The meaning is, that he supposed his days would be very numerous. Such were his expectations - expectations so soon to be disappointed. Such was his condition - a condition so soon to be reversed. The very circumstances in which he was placed were fitted to beget a too confident expectation that his prosperity would continue, and the subsequent dealings of God with him should lead all who are in similar circumstances, not to confide in the stability of their comforts, or to suppose that their prosperity will be uninterrupted. It is difficult, when encompassed with friends and honors, to realize that there ever will be reverses; it is difficult to keep the mind from confiding in them as if they must be permanent and secure.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 29:18. I shall die in my nest — As I endeavoured to live soberly and temperately, fearing God, and departing from evil, endeavouring to promote the welfare of all around me, it was natural for me to conclude that I should live long, be very prosperous, and see my posterity multiply as the sands on the seashore.