Bible Strands
Job 29:18
So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks in a retrospective monologue about his former prosperity, addressing no specific audience at a moment of remembered self-assurance.
The words — The Hebrew verbs אֶגְוָע ('egva) and אַרְבֶּה ('arbeh) literally mean "I will expire" and "I will increase." They anchor the verse's contrast between mortality and multiplied days.
The thread — The text records Job's past claim of endless days, mirroring the unshaken confidence of Psalm 30:6. The "sand" metaphor aligns with God's promise to multiply offspring in Genesis 32:12 and the promise of a vigorous end in Job 5:26.
Why it lands — The verse states Job's former presumption that he would die naturally and live without limit. It asks readers to distinguish between God's covenant promises and human self-reliance when prosperity breeds complacency.
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
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Cross-references
- Psalms 30:6 In prosperity I said, “I will never be shaken.”
- Genesis 32:12 But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
- Job 5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.
- Job 42:16 After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
- Psalms 91:16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
- Jeremiah 49:16 The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Obadiah 1:4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Genesis 41:49 So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance, like the sand of the sea, that he stopped keeping track of it; for it was beyond measure.
- Jeremiah 22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
- Habakkuk 2:9 Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!