Job 27:14

New Living Translation

They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword;his descendants will never have enough food.

Hebrew Names Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

King James Version
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

English Standard Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread.

New Century Version
They may have many children, but the sword will kill them. Their children who are left will never have enough to eat.

New English Translation
If his children increase—it is for the sword! His offspring never have enough to eat.

Amplified Bible
Though his children are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not have sufficient bread.

New American Standard Bible
Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not be satisfied with bread.

World English Bible
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Geneva Bible (1587)
If his children be in great nomber, the sworde shall destroy them, and his posteritie shall not be satisfied with bread.

Legacy Standard Bible
Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword;And his offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

Berean Standard Bible
Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

Contemporary English Version
They may have many children, but most of them will go hungry or suffer a violent death.

Complete Jewish Bible
if his sons become many, they go to the sword; and his children never have enough to eat.

Darby Translation
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread;

Easy-to-Read Version
They may have many children, but all of them will be killed in war. Or their children will not have enough to eat.

George Lamsa Translation
If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Good News Translation
They may have many sons, but all will be killed in war; their children never have enough to eat.

Lexham English Bible
If their children multiply, it is for the sword, and his offspring do not have enough to eat.

Literal Translation
If his sons become numerous, the sword is for them; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf he get many childre, they shal perish wt the swearde, & his posterite shall haue scarcenesse of bred.

American Standard Version
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Bible in Basic English
If his children are increased, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough bread.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not have bread enough.

King James Version (1611)
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offpring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If he get many children, they shall perishe with the sworde, and his posteritie shall haue scarcenesse of bread.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if their children be many, they shall be for slaughter: and if they grow up, they shall beg.

English Revised Version
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If hise children ben multiplied, thei schulen be slayn in swerd; and hise sones sones schulen not be fillid with breed.

Update Bible Version
If his sons are multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Webster's Bible Translation
If his children are multiplied, [it is] for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

New King James Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

New Life Bible
If he has many sons, they will be killed by the sword. And his children will not have enough bread to eat.

New Revised Standard
If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring have not enough to eat.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If his children be multiplied, for them, there is the sword, and, his offspring, shall not be filled with bread;

Douay-Rheims Bible
If his sons be multiplied, they shall be for the sword, and his grandsons shall not be filled with bread.

Revised Standard Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough to eat.

Young's Literal Translation
If his sons multiply -- for them [is] a sword. And his offspring [are] not satisfied [with] bread.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not be satisfied with bread.

Contextual Overview

¹¹ I will teach you about God's power. I will not conceal anything concerning the Almighty. ¹² But you have seen all this, yet you say all these useless things to me. ¹³ "This is what the wicked will receive from God; this is their inheritance from the Almighty. ¹⁴ They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death. ¹⁵ Those who survive will die of a plague, and not even their widows will mourn them. ¹⁶ "Evil people may have piles of money and may store away mounds of clothing. ¹⁷ But the righteous will wear that clothing, and the innocent will divide that money. ¹⁸ The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider's web, as flimsy as a shelter made of branches. ¹⁹ The wicked go to bed rich but wake to find that all their wealth is gone. ²⁰ Terror overwhelms them like a flood, and they are blown away in the storms of the night.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

children: Job 21:11, Job 21:12, Deuteronomy 28:32, Deuteronomy 28:41, 2 Kings 9:7, 2 Kings 9:8, 2 Kings 10:6-10, Esther 5:11, Esther 9:5-10, Psalms 109:13, Hosea 9:13, Hosea 9:14, Luke 23:29

his offspring: 1 Samuel 2:5

Reciprocal: Job 1:18 - Thy sons Job 4:11 - the stout Job 5:4 - children Job 20:28 - increase Psalms 17:14 - leave Psalms 37:9 - evildoers Psalms 37:28 - but Hosea 9:12 - yet

Cross-References

Genesis 25:28
Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 27:2
"I am an old man now," Isaac said, "and I don't know when I may die.

Genesis 27:3
Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows, and go out into the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

Genesis 27:4
Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die."

Genesis 27:7
‘Bring me some wild game and prepare me a delicious meal. Then I will bless you in the Lord 's presence before I die.'

Genesis 27:9
Go out to the flocks, and bring me two fine young goats. I'll use them to prepare your father's favorite dish.

Genesis 27:17
Then she gave Jacob the delicious meal, including freshly baked bread.

Genesis 27:31
Esau prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father. Then he said, "Sit up, my father, and eat my wild game so you can give me your blessing."

Psalms 141:4
Don't let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don't let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.

Luke 21:34
"Watch out! Don't let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don't let that day catch you unaware,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If his children be multiplied,.... As it is possible they may; this is one external blessing common to good men and bad men. Haman, that proud oppressor, left ten sons behind him, and wicked Ahab had seventy, Esther 9:12:

[it is] for the sword; for them that kill with the sword, as the Targum; to be killed with it, as in the two instances above; Haman's ten sons were slain by the sword of the Jews, Esther 9:13, and Ahab's seventy sons by the sword of Jehu, or those he ordered to slay them,

2 Kings 10:7. The children of such wicked persons are oftentimes put to death, either by the sword of the enemy, fall in battle in an hostile way, which is one of God's four sore judgments, Ezekiel 14:21; or, leading a most wicked life, commit such capital crimes as bring them into the hand of the civil magistrate, who bears not the sword in vain, but is the minister of God, a revengeful executioner of wrath on wicked men; or else they die by the sword of the murderer, being brought into the world for such, and through their riches become their prey, Hosea 9:13; or if neither of these is the case, yet they at last, let them prosper as they will, fall a sacrifice to the glittering sword of divine justice, whetted and drawn in wrath against them; the sword of the enemy seems chiefly intended:

and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread; such of them as die not by the sword shall perish by famine, which is another of God's sore judgments; though this may respect the grandchildren of wicked men, whom God visits to the third and fourth generation; the Targum paraphrases it, his children's children, and so Sephorno; to which agrees the Vulgate Latin version: the sense is, that the posterity of such wicked men, when they are dead and gone, shall be so reduced as to beg their bread, and shall not have a sufficiency of that for the support of nature, but shall die for want of food.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword - That is, they shall be slain in war. The first calamities which it is here said would come upon a man, relate to his family Job 27:14-18; the next are those that would come upon himself, Job 27:19-23. All the sentiments here expressed are found in the various speeches of the friends of Job, and, according to the interpretation suggested above, this is designed to represent their sentiments. They maintained that if a wicked man was blessed with a numerous family, and seemed to be prosperous, it was only that the punishment might come the more heavily upon him, for that they certainly would be cut off; see Job 18:19-20; Job 20:10.

And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread - This sentiment was advanced by Zophar, Job 20:10; see the notes at that verse.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 27:14. If his children be multiplied — As numerous families were supposed to be a proof of the benediction of the Almighty, Job shows that this is not always the case; for the offspring of the wicked shall be partly cut off by violent deaths, and partly reduced to great poverty.