TRV
Translation
King James Version
He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
Complete Jewish Bible
"Yet God keeps pulling the mighty along -they get up, even when not trusting their own lives.
Berean Standard Bible
Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.
American Standard Version
YetGod preserveth the mighty by his power: He riseth up that hath no assurance of life.
World English Bible Messianic
Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
Geneva Bible (1599)
He draweth also the mighty by his power, and when he riseth vp, none is sure of life.
Young's Literal Translation
And hath drawn the mighty by his power, He riseth, and none believeth in life.
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In the KJVVerse 13,459 of 31,102
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Commentary on Job 24 verses 18–25
18 ¶ He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.
20 The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
21 He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.
22 He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Job here, in the conclusion of his discourse,
I. Gives some further instances of the wickedness of these cruel bloody men. 1. Some are pirates and robbers at sea. To this many learned interpreters apply those difficult expressions (Job 24:18), He is swift upon the waters. Privateers choose those ships that are the best sailors. In these swift ships they cruise from one channel to another, to pick up prizes; and this brings them in so much wealth that their portion is cursed in the earth, and they behold not the way of the vineyards, that is (as bishop Patrick explains it), they despise the employment of those who till the ground and plant vineyards as poor and unprofitable. But others make this a further description of the conduct of those sinners that are afraid of the light: if they be discovered, they get away as fast as they can, and choose to lurk, not in the vineyards, for fear of being discovered, but in some cursed portion, a lonely and desolate place, which nobody looks after. 2. Some are abusive to those that are in trouble, and add affliction to the afflicted. Barrenness was looked upon as a great reproach, and those that fall under that affliction they upbraid with it, as Peninnah did Hannah, on purpose to vex them and make them to fret, which is a barbarous thing. This is evil entreating the barren that beareth not (Job 24:21), or those that are childless, and so want the arrows others have in their quiver, which enable them to deal with their enemy in the gate, Psa 127:5. They take that advantage against and are oppressive to them. As the fatherless, so the childless, are in some degree helpless. For the same reason it is a cruel thing to hurt the widow, to whom we ought to do good; and not doing good, when it is in our power, is doing hurt. 3. There are those who, by inuring themselves to cruelty, come at last to be so exceedingly boisterous that they are the terror of the mighty in the land of the living (Job 24:22): "He draws the mighty into a snare with his power; even the greatest are not able to stand before him when he is in his mad fits: he rises up in his passion, and lays about him with so much fury that no man is sure of his life; nor can he at the same time be sure of his own, for his hand is against every man and every man's hand against him," Gen 16:12. One would wonder how any man can take pleasure in making all about him afraid of him, yet there are those that do.
II. He shows that these daring sinners prosper, and are at ease for a while, nay, and often end their days in peace, as Ishmael, who, though he was a man of such a character as is here given, yet both lived and died in the presence of all his brethren, as we are told, Gen 16:12; Gen 25:18 : Of these sinners here it is said, 1. That it is given them to be in safety, Job 24:23. They seem to be under the special protection of the divine Providence; and one would wonder how they escape with life through so many dangers as they run themselves into. 2. That they rest upon this, that is, they rely upon this as sufficient to warrant all their violences. Because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedily they think that there is no great evil in them, and that God is not displeased with them, nor will ever call them to an account. Their prosperity is their security. 3. That they are exalted for a while. They seem to be the favourites of heaven, and value themselves as making the best figure on earth. They are set up in honour, set up (as they think) out of the reach of danger, and lifted up in the pride of their own spirits. 4. That, at length, they are carried out of the world very silently and gently, and without any remarkable disgrace or terror. "They go down to the grave as easily as snow-water sinks into the dry ground when it is melted by the sun;" so bishop Patrick explains Job 24:19. To the same purport he paraphrases Job 24:20, The womb shall forget him, etc. "God sets no such mark of his displeasure upon him but that his mother may soon forget him. The hand of justice does not hang him on a gibbet for the birds to feed on; but he is carried to his grave like other men, to be the sweet food of worms. There he lies quietly, and neither he nor his wickedness is any more remembered than a tree which is broken to shivers." And Job 24:24, They are taken out of the way as all others, that is, "they are shut up in their graves like all other men; nay, they die as easily (without those tedious pains which some endure) as an ear of corn is cropped with your hand." Compare this with Solomon's observation (Ecc 8:10), I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten.
III. He foresees their fall however, and that their death, though they die in ease and honour, will be their ruin. God's eyes are upon their ways, Job 24:23. Though he keep silence, and seem to connive at them, yet he takes notice, and keeps account of all their wickedness, and will make it to appear shortly that their most secret sins, which they thought no eye should see (Job 24:15), were under his eye and will be called over again. Here is no mention of the punishment of these sinners in the other world, but it is intimated in the particular notice taken of the consequences of their death. 1. The consumption of the body in the grave, though common to all, yet to them is in the nature of a punishment for their sin. The grave shall consume those that have sinned; that land of darkness will be the lot of those that love darkness rather than light. The bodies they pampered shall be a feast for worms, which shall feed as sweetly on them as ever they fed on the pleasures and gains of their sins. 2. Though they thought to make themselves a great name by their wealth, and power, and mighty achievements, yet their memorial perished with them, Psa 9:6. He that made himself so much talked of shall, when he is dead, be no more remembered with honour; his name shall rot, Pro 10:7. Those that durst not give him his due character while he lived shall not spare him when he is dead; so that the womb that bore him, his own mother, shall forget him, that is, shall avoid making mention of him, and shall think that the greatest kindness she can do him, since no good can be said of him. That honour which is got by sin will soon turn into shame. 3. The wickedness they thought to establish in their families shall be broken as a tree; all their wicked projects shall be blasted, and all their wicked hopes dashed and buried with them. 4. Their pride shall be brought down and laid in the dust (Job 24:24); and, in mercy to the world, they shall be taken out of the way, and all their power and prosperity shall be cut off. You may seek them, and they shall not be found. Job owns that wicked people will be miserable at last, miserable on the other side death, but utterly denies what his friends asserted, that ordinarily they are miserable in this life.
IV. He concludes with a bold challenge to all that were present to disprove what he had said if they could (Job 24:25): "If it be not so now, as I have declared, and if it do not thence follow that I am unjustly condemned and censured, let those that can undertake to prove that my discourse is either, 1. False in itself, and then they prove me a liar; or, 2. Foreign, and nothing to the purpose, and then they prove my speech frivolous and nothing worth." That indeed which is false is nothing worth; where there is not truth, how can there be goodness? But those that speak the words of truth and soberness need not fear having what they say brought to the test, but can cheerfully submit it to a fair examination, as Job does here.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 18–25. Public domain.
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Olympiodorus of AlexandriaAD 600
COMMENTARY ON JOB 24:22-24
“Therefore when he has risen, he will not feel secure of his own life.” For these reasons the impious, after rising every day not really believing that he will live, remains in fear and is frightened. As the wise Solomon stated, “Fear, indeed, is nothing other than the abandonment of the supports offered by reason.” “When he has fallen sick, let him not hope to recover, but let him perish by disease.” The diseases of the body, in fact, often occur because of sin. “Let him not hope,” that is, the lack of hope is due to the consciousness of his sins. “Let him perish” by disease, that is, by the blows of calamity. “For his exaltation has hurt many.”For this reason, “let him perish,” because his exaltation has hurt many. “But he has withered as mallows in the heat or as an ear of corn falling off of itself from the stalk.” Other examples [from the Greek Bible] read “like grass.” In a similar way, the psalmist also says, “Quick as the grass they wither, fading like the green in the field.” And he rightly says, “falling off of itself,” indeed, for everybody sin itself becomes a punisher.
Olympiodorus of AlexandriaAD 600
COMMENTARY ON JOB 24:20-22
“He has not treated the barren woman well,” that is, the woman who is without help because of her lack of children. And notice again how ill treatment is considered an act of impiety. “Keep away from evil,” the divine psalmist says, “and practice good.” “And he had no pity on a feeble woman,” that is, on a woman who needs help because of her feeble nature. “And in wrath he has overthrown the helpless.” In fact he did not overthrow the feeble and the helpless for any rational cause, but because of the impulse of his wild soul, while being inflamed with his wrath; and he reduced them to extreme poverty.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
6. Since in the might of his wickedness the mighty he severally takes away, whilst by the craftiness of his error he carries off the great ones of this world. In opposition to whom it is said by Paul, God hast chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. [1 Cor. 1, 27] Now the ‘might’ of the corrupt preacher is the high-flown science of his speaking, puffed up with which he despises all the rest of the world, and in contempt of all men, as being preeminently proficient in himself, he swells big. Who whilst thinking what is great of himself, and not knowing what is true of God, is parted far from knowledge of the faith, and yet endeavours to make himself appear a preacher thereof. Whence it is further added;
And when he standeth, he will not believe his like.
7. Every evil preacher ‘standeth’ in this world, so long as he lives in an earthly body. But he refuses to ‘believe his life,’ because he is too proud to open his eyes to what is true relating to God. For he would ‘believe his life,’ if he had right notions concerning the Substance of his Creator. These things, then, we were describing above as spoken of every bad man, but we suddenly made the meaning turn to the preacher of error. Whence it is to be noted, that we are so drawn on to the special case as not yet in any wise to be quite taken off from the general. For every bad man, even if he seem to maintain the faith in the bosom of the Church Universal, ‘standeth and believeth not his life,’ because they are right things indeed which by faith he understands of his Creator, yet the works of faith he cares not to maintain; and he is convicted of unbelief, in that, even from that which he sets forth as his creed, by his way of living he is condemned. For hence it is said by John, He that saith he knoweth God, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar. [1 John 2, 4] Hence Paul saith, They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. [Tit. 1, 16] Hence James saith, Faith without works is dead. [Jam. 2, 20. 26.] But amidst all this the Creator by a wonderful economy of counsel at once has an eye to offences, and bestows periods of living, that the lengthened portions of temporal life may to the person either being converted be turned into the furtherance of reward, or not being converted to the heightening of condemnation.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Job 24:22 powerfully articulates Job's profound struggle with the apparent injustice in the world, where the wicked often seem to prosper and evade immediate consequences. This verse captures his observation that even the most powerful and influential individuals, despite their temporal strength, are ultimately subject to an overarching divine power and the universal reality of human mortality. It underscores the sobering truth that no human being, regardless of their might or perceived security, possesses inherent certainty or control over their own life and ultimate destiny.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 24:22 employs several literary devices to convey its profound message. Irony is prominent, as Job highlights the paradox that those who wield the most earthly power and seem most secure are, in fact, utterly insecure in the face of a higher power and the certainty of mortality. The "mighty" are described as being "drawn" by "his power," which is the power of the divine, creating a powerful juxtaposition between fleeting human might and irresistible divine omnipotence. The phrase "no man is sure of life" serves as a universal declaration, transforming a specific observation about the wicked into a timeless truth about the human condition. The imagery of "drawing" (מָשַׁךְ) suggests an almost physical, irresistible force, creating a vivid and impactful mental picture of the inevitable end for those who trust in their own strength rather than in God.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 24:22, while part of Job's lament and his struggle with God's apparent inaction, subtly affirms God's ultimate sovereignty over all creation, including the most powerful human beings. It underscores the pervasive biblical truth that human strength, earthly security, and worldly influence are fleeting illusions when compared to the eternal and absolute power of God. The verse resonates with a pervasive theme in Scripture: that while the wicked may prosper for a time, their ultimate end is insecurity and judgment, and no human can escape the certainty of death or accountability before their Creator. It serves as a reminder that true security is not found in human might or worldly possessions, but in God alone, who holds the power of life and death.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 24:22 offers a sobering yet profoundly liberating perspective for believers today. In a world that often values power, influence, and material security above all else, this verse reminds us that such earthly foundations are inherently unstable and ultimately transient. It challenges us to re-evaluate where we place our trust and derive our sense of security. If even the "mighty" are not "sure of life," then our ultimate hope and certainty must reside in something, or Someone, beyond the temporal and physical. This verse encourages a profound sense of humility, recognizing that our lives are a precious gift, transient and ultimately subject to God's sovereign will. It prompts us to live wisely, prioritizing eternal values—justice, righteousness, compassion, and a deepening relationship with God—over fleeting worldly achievements and the pursuit of self-serving power. When we observe injustice or the apparent prosperity of the wicked, this verse provides a theological anchor, reminding us that God's ultimate justice will prevail, even if its timing is not always immediately apparent to our limited human understanding. It calls us to trust in His unwavering sovereignty and to remember that true, enduring life is found not in self-assertion or worldly might, but in humble reliance on the eternal God.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does Job 24:22 imply that God actively causes the death of the mighty, or simply that they are subject to His ultimate decree?
Answer: The phrase "He draweth also the mighty with his power" strongly suggests an active, irresistible force at work, which is most naturally interpreted as God's ultimate sovereignty and control over life and death. While it doesn't necessarily imply a direct, immediate act of judgment in every instance, it certainly conveys that even the most powerful human beings are not beyond God's reach or the natural limits He has set for human life. It underscores that their "power" is ultimately insufficient to guarantee their security or immortality. This aligns with the broader biblical understanding that God holds the power of life and death, as declared in Deuteronomy 32:39 and 1 Samuel 2:6.
How does this verse fit into Job's overall argument about suffering and justice?
Answer: Job 24:22 is a crucial, albeit complex, part of Job's argument against his friends' simplistic retribution theology. Throughout Chapter 24, Job details the many ways the wicked exploit the vulnerable and seem to escape punishment, living in apparent peace and prosperity (Job 24:2-12). This verse, however, introduces a subtle shift or perhaps a glimmer of Job's own underlying belief in God's ultimate justice, even if delayed. It acknowledges that despite their temporary success and apparent security, the "mighty" wicked are still subject to a higher power and the universal truth of mortality. It implies that their perceived invincibility is an illusion, and their lives are as precarious as anyone else's, ultimately leading to an inescapable end. It's Job wrestling with the tension between observed reality and theological conviction, asserting that God's sovereignty will ultimately prevail, even if His methods and timing are beyond human comprehension.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 24:22, with its stark declaration that "no man is sure of life," finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While the verse highlights the universal human condition of mortality and the fleeting nature of earthly power, Christ offers the definitive answer to this deep-seated insecurity. The "mighty" of this world, who trust in their own strength and influence, are indeed drawn by an ultimate power to an uncertain end. However, Jesus, though appearing in weakness and humility, demonstrated true divine power by conquering death itself, rising victoriously from the grave (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He is the one who holds the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18), offering a security of life that no earthly power or human might can ever provide. For those who believe in Him, life is no longer uncertain but eternal, secured by His resurrection and indwelling Spirit (John 11:25-26). The "power" that draws the mighty to their end is ultimately God's sovereign power, which was perfectly manifested in Christ's triumph over sin and death, providing a pathway to true and everlasting life for all who trust in Him, rather than in their own fleeting might or worldly achievements. He is the only one who can truly make us "sure of life."