Bible Strands
Job 27:16
Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job addresses his companions while describing the sudden ruin of a wealthy man who claims righteousness, noting that his own household will be left to die unwept for.
The words — יִצְבֹּר (yitzbor) means "he will heap up," paired with מַלְבּוּשׁ (malbush) meaning "clothing" or "wardrobe."
The thread — The accumulation of vast wealth appears in Zechariah 9:3 regarding Tyre, 1 Kings 10:27 describing Solomon’s reign, and Matthew 6:19 warning against storing earthly treasure.
Why it lands — The text states that hoarded silver and prepared garments cannot prevent sudden death or preserve ownership, as these assets will ultimately be seized and distributed to the innocent.
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
Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
Cross-references
- Zechariah 9:3 Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.
- Matthew 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- 1 Kings 10:27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.
- Job 22:24 and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,
- Habakkuk 2:6 Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’
- James 5:2 Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.