Bible Strands
Job 4:21
Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz addresses Job in a dream vision, following his declaration that the wicked are destroyed without notice in Job 4:20.
The words — The Hebrew נִסַּע (ni.sa) literally means “has been pulled up” or “removed,” describing the sudden withdrawal of structural support, while חָכְמָה (cha.khe.mah) means “wisdom” or “understanding.”
The thread — The pattern of sudden collapse paired with loss of discernment runs through Job 36:12, Job 8:22, and Psalm 39:11.
Why it lands — The text states that when divine support is withdrawn, a person perishes without understanding; it asks the reader to acknowledge that human stability and discernment are entirely dependent on that provision.
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
Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
Cross-references
- Job 36:12 But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.
- Job 8:22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
- Psalms 39:11 You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
- Luke 16:22 One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
- Job 18:21 Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”
- Psalms 39:5 You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- 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.
- Psalms 49:20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
- Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Isaiah 2:22 Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?