Bible Strands
Job 8:12
While the shoots are still uncut, they dry up more quickly than grass.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — A friend of Job addresses him in response to his lament about suffering. The words — עֹדֶ֣נּוּ ('oDe/nu) meaning "still" and יִקָּטֵ֑ף (yi.ka.Tef) meaning "it is plucked off" describe vegetation cut down before maturity. The thread — The imagery of premature withering parallels Jeremiah 17:6, Psalm 129:6, and Matthew 13:20. Why it lands — The text states that unripe shoots wither faster than mature grass, asking the reader to recognize how quickly life fails without sustained roots.
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
Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 17:6 He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
- Psalms 129:6 May they be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it can grow,
- Matthew 13:20 The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
- James 1:10 But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
- 1 Peter 1:24 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,