Job 4 · Verse 21

Job 4:21

Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
Job 4:21, King James Version

Job 4:21 in other translations

BSBAre not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
WEBIsn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’
ASVIs not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.
YLTHath not their excellency been removed with them? They die, and not in wisdom!
DARBYIs not their tent-cord torn away in them? they die, and without wisdom.
BBEIf their tent-cord is pulled up, do they not come to an end, and without wisdom?
WebsterDoth not their excellence which is in them depart? they die, even without wisdom.

What does Job 4:21 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
21. their excellency--(Psa 39:11; 146:4; 1Co 13:8). But Umbreit, by an Oriental image from a bow, useless because unstrung: "Their nerve, or string would be torn away." Michaelis, better in accordance with Job 4:19, makes the allusion be to the cords of a tabernacle taken down (Is 33:20). they die, even without wisdom--rather, "They would perish, yet not according to wisdom," but according to arbitrary choice, if God were not infinitely wise and holy. The design of the spirit is to show that the continued existence of weak man proves the inconceivable wisdom and holiness of God, which alone save man from ruin [Umbreit]. Bengel shows from Scripture that God's holiness (Hebrew, kadosh) comprehends all His excellencies and attributes. De Wette loses the scope, in explaining it, of the shortness of man's life, contrasted with the angels "before they have attained to wisdom."

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 21 Doth not their excellency - go away! - Personal beauty, corporeal strength, powerful eloquence, and various mental endowments, pass away, or are plucked up by the roots; they are no more seen or heard among men, and their memory soon perisheth. They die, even without wisdom - If wisdom means the pursuit of the best end, by the most legitimate and appropriate means, the great mass of mankind appear to perish without it. But, if we consider the subject more closely, we shall find that all men die in a state of comparative ignorance. With all our boasted science and arts, how little do we know! Do we know any thing to perfection that belongs either to the material or spiritual world? Do we understand even what matter is? What is its essence? Do we understand what spirit is? Then, what is its essence? Almost all the phenomena of nature, its grandest operations, and the laws of the heavenly bodies, have been explained on the principle of gravitation or attraction; but in what does this consist? Who can answer? We can traverse every part of the huge and trackless ocean by means of the compass; but who understands the nature of magnetism on which all this depends? We eat and drink in order to maintain life; but what is nutrition, and how is it effected? This has never been explained. Life depends on respiration for its continuance; but by what kind of action is it, that in a moment the lungs separate the oxygen, which is friendly to life, from the nitrogen, which would destroy it; suddenly absorbing the one, and expelling the other? Who, among the generation of hypothesis-framers, has guessed this out? Life is continued by the circulation of the blood; but by what power and law does it circulate? Have the systole and diastole of the heart, on which this circulation depends, ever been satisfactorily explained? Most certainly not. Alas, we die without wisdom; and must die, to know these, and ten thousand other matters equally unknown, and equally important. To be safe, in reference to eternity, we must know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent; whom to know is life eternal. This knowledge, obtained and retained, will entitle us to all the rest in the eternal world.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 4:12-21

Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, Psa 4:4, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his…

Read the full comment on Job 4:12-21 →

Job 4:21 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.

הֲלֹא\־ha.lo'-¿ notH3808
נִסַּ֣עni.Sa'has it been pulled upH5265
יִתְרָ֣םyit.Ramtent cord theirH3499
בָּ֑םBamin them
יָ֝מ֗וּתוּya.Mu.tuwill they die?H4191
וְלֹ֣אve.Lo'and notH3808
בְחָכְמָֽה\׃ve.cha.khe.Mahwith wisdomH2451

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

Cross references for Job 4:21

  • Job 36:12

    But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

  • Luke 16:22-23

    And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

  • Job 8:22

    They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.

  • Psalms 39:11

    When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

  • 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?

  • Psalms 49:14

    Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

  • Psalms 39:5

    Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

  • Isaiah 2:22

    Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

  • Isaiah 14:16

    They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

  • Job 18:21

    Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

  • James 1:11

    For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

  • Psalms 49:20

    Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

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

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
excellency.
Ps 39:5,11; 49:14; 146:3,4; Isa 14:16; Lu 16:22,23; Jas 1:11
die.
36:12; Ps 49:20; Isa 2:22; Lu 12:20

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

Context

  • Job 4:20

    They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.

  • Job 4:21

    Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.

Read all of Job 4

Job 4:21 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		¿Su hermosura, no se pierde con ellos mismos? Mueren, y sin sabiduría.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Leurs cordes ne leur sont-elles pas arrachées? Ils meurent, et sans sagesse.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Ist es nicht so? wird ihr Zeltstrick an ihnen weggerissen, so sterben sie, und nicht in Weisheit.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Qui autem reliqui fuerint, auferentur ex eis; morientur, et non in sapientia.