Job 36 · Verse 20

Job 36:20

Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
Job 36:20, King James Version

Job 36:20 in other translations

BSBDo not long for the night, when people vanish from their homes.
WEBDon’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.
ASVDesire not the night, When peoples are cut off in their place.
YLTDesire not the night, For the going up of peoples in their stead.
DARBYDesire not the night, when peoples are cut off from their place.
BBE...
WebsterDesire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.

What does Job 36:20 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
20. Desire--pant for. Job had wished for death (Job 3:3-9, &c.). night--(Joh 9:4). when--rather, "whereby." cut off--literally, "ascend," as the corn cut and lifted upon the wagon or stack (Job 36:26); so "cut off," "disappear." in their place--literally, "under themselves"; so, without moving from their place, on the spot, suddenly (Job 40:12) [Maurer]. Umbreit's translation: "To ascend (which is really, as thou wilt find to thy cost, to descend) to the people below" (literally, "under themselves"), answers better to the parallelism and the Hebrew. Thou pantest for death as desirable, but it is a "night" or region of darkness; thy fancied ascent (amelioration) will prove a descent (deterioration) (Job 10:22); therefore desire it not.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 20 Desire not the night - Thou hast wished for death; (here called night); desire it not; leave that with God. If he hear thee, and send death, thou mayest be cut off in a way at which thy soul would shudder.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 36:15-23

Elihu shows that Job caused the continuance of his own trouble. He cautions him not to persist in frowardness. Even good men need to be kept to their duty by the fear of God's wrath; the wisest and best have enough in them to deserve his stroke. Let not Job continue his unjust quarrel with God and his providence. And let us never dare to think favourably of sin, never indulge it, nor allow ourselves in it. Elihu…

Read the full comment on Job 36:15-23 →

Job 36:20 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.

אַל\־'al-may notH408
תִּשְׁאַ֥ףtish.'Afyou long forH7602
הַלָּ֑יְלָהha.La.ye.lahthe nightH3915
לַעֲל֖וֹתla.'a.Lotto go upH5927
עַמִּ֣ים'a.MimpeoplesH5971
תַּחְתָּֽם\׃tach.Tamin place theirH8478

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

Cross references for Job 36:20

  • Job 34:20

    In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.

  • Exodus 12:29

    And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

  • Job 34:25

    Therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed.

  • 2 Kings 19:35

    And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

  • Job 14:13

    O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

  • Luke 12:20

    But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

  • Job 7:15

    So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

  • Acts 1:25

    That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

  • 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

    For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

  • Ecclesiastes 11:3

    If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

  • Job 17:13-14

    If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

  • Daniel 5:30

    In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

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

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Desire.
3:20,21; 6:9; 7:15; 14:13; 17:13,14
cut.
Ex 12:29; 2Ki 19:35; Pr 14:32; Ec 11:3; Da 5:30; Lu 12:20; Ac 1:25
1Th 5:2,3

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

Context

  • Job 36:19

    Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.

  • Job 36:20

    Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.

  • Job 36:21

    Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.

Read all of Job 36

Job 36:20 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		No anheles la noche, en que desaparecen los pueblos de su lugar.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Ne soupire pas après la nuit qui enlèvera les peuples de leur place.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Sehne dich nicht nach der Nacht, welche Völker plötzlich hinwegheben wird.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Ne protrahas noctem, ut ascendant populi pro eis.