to lie down (for rest · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
alike
יַ֭חַדYa.chad
H3162
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
dust
עָפָ֣ר'a.Far
H6083
dust (as powdered or gray) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
worms
וְ֝רִמָּ֗הve.ri.Mah
H7415
a maggot (as rapidly bred) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
cover
תְּכַסֶּ֥הte.kha.Seh
H3680
properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ecclesiastes 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to h…
Isaiah 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
Job 20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
Job 3:18-19 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
Job 17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Job 24:20 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.
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 bea…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 21:17-26
Job had largely described the prosperity of wicked people; now, in these verses,
I. He opposes this to what his friends had maintained concerning their certain ruin in this life. "Tell me how often do you see the candle of the wicked put out? Do you not as often see it burnt down to the socket, until it goes out of itself? Job 21:17. How often do you see their destruction come upon them, or God distributing sorrows in his anger among them? Do you not as often see their mirth and prosperity continuing to the last?" Perhaps there are as many instances of notorious sinners ending their days in pomp as ending them in misery, which observation is sufficient to invalidate their arguments against J…
They shall lie down alike in the dust,.... Such as have lived and died in great outward prosperity, or in more unhappy circumstances; these are levelled by death, and brought into the same state and condition; are laid on dusty beds, where there is no difference between them, their rest together is in the dust; here they dwell, and here they lie and sleep until they are awaked in the morning of the resurrection:
and the worms shall cover them; these are the companions alike unto them, and sweetly feed on the one as on the other; the earth is their bed, and worms are their covering; even such who used to lie on beds of down, and were covered with coverings of silk, have now the same bed and…
22 Shall one teach God knowledge,
Who judgeth those who are in heaven?
23 One dieth in his full strength,
Being still cheerful and free from care.
24 His troughs are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is well watered.
25 And another dieth with a sorrowing spirit,
And hath not enjoyed wealth.
26 They lie beside one another in the dust,
And worms cover them both.
The question, Job 21:22, concerns the friends. Since they maintain that necessarily and constantly virtue is rewarded by prosperity, and sin by misfortune, but without this law of the divine order of the world which is maintained by them being supported by experience: if they set themselves up as teachers of God, they will teac…
The Church Fathers
Ver. 26. And yet they shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them. What wonder then if those persons for a moment run a course unlike in the prosperity and adversity of this world, who through the corruption of the flesh return alike to the earth? So that life alone is to be thought on, wherein together with the resurrection of the flesh there is the arrival at an unlike end of recompensing. For what is 'strength and ease' to the wicked, what 'marrow and riches,' seeing that all is left here in a moment, and There that retribution, which may never be left, is found? For as the mirth of this wicked one passes on to woe, so the woe of the innocent soul in affliction passes on to joy. So neither ought riches to lift up the soul, nor poverty to disturb it. Hence blessed Job in the midst of hurts in substance receives to the mind no hurts in thoughts; but to them that despise him under the infliction of the rod, he adds rebuking them. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] 64. But this that is said, They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them, if anyone wish to take in the way of allegory, we may shortly accomplish it, if what has been already said concerning this bad rich man, we repeat again. Thus it is said, His inwards are full of fatness, and his bones are moistened with marrow. For as 'fat' arises from much food, so does pride from abundance of goods, which fattens his mind in his riches, while his spirit is lifted up in his proud behaving. For the pride of the heart is like a kind of richness of fat. Whence, because very many commit sins from abundance, it is said by the Prophet, Their iniquity has come out as it were from fatness. [Ps. 73, 7] It follows, And his bones are moistened with marrow. The lovers of this life have 'bones' as it were, when in this world they possess the strong stay of dignities. But if in the outward dignity there lack earthly private wealth, as to their judgment they have 'bones' indeed, but 'marrow' in the bones they have not. Whereas then that lover of this world is so stayed up by outward power that he is likewise at the same time stuffed to the full with the inward abundance of his earthly house, it is said, And his bones are moistened with marrow. Or otherwise the 'bones' of the rich man are bad and stubborn practices, but the 'marrow in the bones' are the mere desires of bad living…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Worm — (1.) Heb. sas (Isa. 51:8), denotes the caterpillar of the clothes-moth. (2.) The manna bred worms (tola’im), but on the Sabbath there was not any worm (rimmah) therein (Ex. 16:20, 24). Here these…
Corruption · .After — .After
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
eaten by the same maggots: Cp. 17:14; Isa 14:11; see Job 19:26.
Rashi on Job 21:26
Together on the earth they lie After their death, it is not recognizable to the people who is good and who is bad, because this one is like that one; they lie on the earth together.
