Job 15 · Verse 23

Job 15:23

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
Job 15:23, King James Version

Job 15:23 in other translations

BSBHe wanders about as food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
WEBHe wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
ASVHe wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
YLTHe is wandering for bread--‘Where is it?' He hath known that ready at his hand Is a day of darkness.
DARBYHe wandereth abroad for bread, — where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
BBEHe is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him:
WebsterHe wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

What does Job 15:23 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
23. Wandereth in anxious search for bread. Famine in Old Testament depicts sore need (Is 5:13). Contrast the pious man's lot (Job 5:20-22). knoweth--has the firm conviction. Contrast the same word applied to the pious (Job 5:24, 25). ready at his hand--an Arabic phrase to denote a thing's complete readiness and full presence, as if in the hand.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 23 He wandereth abroad for bread - He is reduced to a state of the utmost indigence, he who was once in affluence requires a morsel of bread, and can scarcely by begging procure enough to sustain life. Is ready at his hand - Is בידו beyado, in his hand - in his possession. As he cannot get bread, he must soon meet death.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 15:17-35

Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. But because many of God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore follow that those who are crossed and made poor, as Job, are not God's people. Eliphaz shows also that wicked people, particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live very…

Read the full comment on Job 15:17-35 →

Job 15:23 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

נֹ֘דֵ֤דno.Ded[is] wanderingH5074
ה֣וּאhu'heH1931
לַלֶּ֣חֶםla.Le.chemfor <the> foodH3899
אַיֵּ֑ה'ai.Yehwhere?H346
יָדַ֓ע\׀ya.Da'he knowsH3045
כִּֽי\־ki-thatH3588
נָכ֖וֹןna.Khon[has been] preparedH3559
בְּיָד֣וֹbe.ya.Doin hand hisH3027
יֽוֹם\־yom-a day ofH3117
חֹֽשֶׁךְ\׃Cho.shekhdarknessH2822

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 15:23

  • Job 18:12

    His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.

  • Psalms 109:10

    Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

  • Psalms 59:15

    Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.

  • Amos 5:20

    Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

  • Ecclesiastes 11:8

    But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.

  • Lamentations 5:6

    We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

  • Hebrews 10:27

    But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

  • Zephaniah 1:15

    That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

  • Job 30:3-4

    For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

  • Genesis 4:12

    When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

  • Job 18:18

    He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

  • Hebrews 11:37-38

    They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
wandereth.
30:3,4; Ge 4:12; Ps 59:15; 109:10; La 5:6,9; Heb 11:37,38
the day.
18:5,6,12,18; Ec 11:8; Joe 2:2; Am 5:20; Zep 1:15; Heb 10:27

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 15:22

    He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

  • Job 15:23

    He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

  • Job 15:24

    Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

Read all of Job 15

Job 15:23 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Desasosegado á comer siempre, sabe que le está aparejado día de tinieblas.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Il erre çà et là pour du pain: – où en trouver? Il sait qu’à son côté un jour de ténèbres est préparé;
German
Elberfelder 1871		Er schweift umher nach Brot-wo es finden? Er weiß, daß neben ihm ein Tag der Finsternis bereitet ist.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Cum se moverit ad quærendum panem, novit quod paratus sit in manu ejus tenebrarum dies.