Bible Strands
Job 21:11
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job addresses his three friends in the midst of his monologue, describing the daily reality of the wicked household. He speaks at a moment when he is dismantling their retribution theology by pointing to observable, untroubled prosperity.
The words — יְשַׁלְּח֣וּ (ye.sha.le.Chu) means "they send forth," and כַּצֹּאן (ka.tzon) means "like a flock." Together they depict children being released to play with the same ease and abundance as livestock.
The thread — The flock metaphor appears in Psalm 107:41, where God multiplies the families of the needy like flocks, and Psalm 127:3, which calls children a heritage from the LORD. Job 21:11 borrows the same agricultural image to describe casual, unbothered abundance rather than covenant favor.
Why it lands — The text forces the reader to accept that prosperity and familial ease frequently belong to the wicked, independent of moral standing. It requires abandoning a rigid prosperity-or-suffering equation and facing the plain evidence of life as it unfolds.
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
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Cross-references
- Psalms 107:41 But He lifts the needy from affliction and increases their families like flocks.
- Psalms 127:3 Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.