Bible Strands
Job 21:26
But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his friends during a defense of the wicked's apparent prosperity, contrasting their current comfort with the inevitable end awaiting both the prosperous and the bitter-dying man.
The words — The Hebrew יַחַד (ya.chad, "together") and רִמָּה (ri.mah, "maggot") anchor the verse, showing that the dead man lies down in the dust (עָפָר, 'a.far) while a maggot covers him.
The thread — This shared fate of decay appears in Ecclesiastes 9:2 as the common lot of the righteous and wicked, echoes Isaiah 14:11's imagery of maggots and worms as a bed, and parallels Job 20:11's note that youthful strength lies in the dust.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that earthly status or suffering ends in identical physical decay, stripping away any claim to post-mortem advantage.
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 shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 9:2 It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.
- Isaiah 14:11 Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.
- Job 20:11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
- Job 3:18 The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
- Job 17:14 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
- Job 19:26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
- Job 24:20 The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.
- Psalms 49:14 Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.