Bible Strands
Job 15:31
Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, for emptiness will be his reward.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses a specific man within the Job 15 discourse, warning him against false confidence while outlining his impending judgment.
The words — The text highlights שָׁוְא (shav') meaning worthlessness or emptiness, and תְמוּרָה (temurah) meaning recompense or reward. These terms frame the warning that misplaced trust yields only hollow consequences.
The thread — This theme of deceptive trust and hollow reward appears in Isaiah 59:4, Galatians 6:3, and Psalms 62:10. These passages similarly warn against relying on false hope or empty claims.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader to abandon self-deception and recognize that false confidence produces only empty outcomes. It requires an honest assessment of where one places trust before facing consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 59:4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
- Galatians 6:3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- Psalms 62:10 Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Job 4:8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Job 12:16 True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His.
- Proverbs 22:8 He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- Isaiah 44:20 He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
- Jonah 2:8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.