Bible Strands
Job 31:8
then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks these conditional curses to God, placing them within a formal oath of innocence that examines his conduct in field, home, and heart.
The words — The Hebrew אֶזְרְעָה ('Ez.re.'ah) and יְשֹׁרָֽשׁוּ (ye.sho.Ra.shu) literally mean "let me sow" and "let them be rooted up," expressing a wish for agricultural ruin.
The thread — This imagery of lost harvest appears in Deuteronomy 28:38, Leviticus 26:16, and Micah 6:15 as a standard covenant curse for disobedience.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader to weigh the severity of personal integrity against the tangible loss of livelihood, treating moral failure as a direct threat to one's material security.
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 let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
- Micah 6:15 You will sow but not reap; you will press olives but not anoint yourselves with oil; you will tread grapes but not drink the wine.
- Deuteronomy 28:38 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
- Deuteronomy 28:30 You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.
- Deuteronomy 28:51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.
- Judges 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,
- Job 5:4 His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- Job 15:30 He will not escape from the darkness; the flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.
- Job 18:19 He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.
- Job 20:18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.