Bible Strands
Job 22:16
They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Eliphaz addresses Job in a condemnation speech, positioning the verse between the warning to abandon the wicked man's path and the quotation of the arrogant who tell God to depart.
The words — קֻמְּטוּ (ku.me.Tu) translates "they were snatched away," while יְסוֹדָם (ye.so.Da/m) "their foundations" are described as swept away by a נָהָר (na.Har) "river" that was יוּצַק (yu.Tzak) "poured out."
The thread — The phrasing aligns with Job 15:32, which records that destruction occurs "before his time," and echoes the flood narrative of Genesis 7:11 and Genesis 7:17 where waters rise and overwhelm the earth.
Why it lands — The text presents sudden, unpreventable collapse as the direct result of following a wicked trajectory, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human foundations cannot withstand divine judgment.
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
Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
Cross-references
- Job 15:32 It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish.
- Genesis 7:17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.
- Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Psalms 55:23 But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
- Matthew 24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.
- 1 Peter 3:19 in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison
- 2 Peter 2:5 if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
- Job 14:19 as water wears away the stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man’s hope.
- Psalms 102:24 I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days! Your years go on through all generations.
- Ecclesiastes 7:17 Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?