Lectionary Calendar
Friday, September 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Bishop's Bible

Job 8:12

No, but whilste it is nowe in his greennesse, though it be not cut downe, yet withereth it before any other hearbe:

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Forgetting God;   Godlessness;   The Topic Concordance - Bearing Fruit;   Endurance;   Forgetting;   Hope;   Hypocrisy;   Perishing;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Forgetting God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Bildad;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Leek;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Sirach;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Leek;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bildad;   Job, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
While still uncut shoots,they would dry up quicker than any other plant.
Hebrew Names Version
While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, It withers before any other reed.
King James Version
Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
English Standard Version
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
New Century Version
While they are still growing and not yet cut, they will dry up quicker than grass.
New English Translation
While they are still beginning to flower and not ripe for cutting, they can wither away faster than any grass!
Amplified Bible
"While it is still green (in flower) and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant [when without water].
New American Standard Bible
"While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.
World English Bible
While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, It withers before any other reed.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Though it were in greene and not cutte downe, yet shall it wither before any other herbe.
Legacy Standard Bible
While it is still green and not cut down,Yet it dries up before any other plant.
Berean Standard Bible
While the shoots are still uncut, they dry up quicker than grass.
Contemporary English Version
and if the water dries up, they die sooner than grass.
Complete Jewish Bible
While still green, before being cut down, it dries up faster than any other plant.
Darby Translation
Whilst it is yet in its greenness [and] not cut down, it withereth before any [other] grass.
Easy-to-Read Version
No, they will dry up before harvest. They will be too small to cut and use.
George Lamsa Translation
While they are yet in their greenness, and not cut down, they wither before any other herb.
Good News Translation
If the water dries up, they are the first to wither, while still too small to be cut and used.
Lexham English Bible
While it is in its flower and is not plucked, yet it withers before all grass.
Literal Translation
While it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it dries out before every plant.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
No: but (or euer it be shot forth, and or euer it be gathered) it wythereth, before eny other herbe.
American Standard Version
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, It withereth before any other herb.
Bible in Basic English
When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
King James Version (1611)
Whilest it is yet in his greennesse, and not cut downe, it withereth before any other herbe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
When it is yet on the root, and though it has not been cut down, does not any herb wither before it has received moisture?
English Revised Version
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whanne it is yit in the flour, nethir is takun with hond, it wexeth drie bifor alle erbis.
Update Bible Version
While it is yet in its greenness, [and] not cut down, It withers before any [other] herb.
Webster's Bible Translation
Whilst it [is] yet in its greenness, [and] not cut down, it withereth before any [other] herb.
New King James Version
While it is yet green and not cut down, It withers before any other plant.
New Living Translation
While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither more quickly than grass.
New Life Bible
While it is still green and not cut, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.
New Revised Standard
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Though while still, in its freshness, it be not plucked off, yet, before any kind of grass, it doth wither:
Douay-Rheims Bible
When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked u with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
Revised Standard Version
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
Young's Literal Translation
While it [is] in its budding -- uncropt, Even before any herb it withereth.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.

Contextual Overview

8 Enquire I pray thee of the former age, and search diligently among their fathers: 9 (For we are but of yesterday, and consider not that our dayes vpon earth are but a shadowe.) 10 Shall not they shew thee, and tel thee, yea and gladly confesse the same, and vtter the wordes of their heart? 11 May a rushe be greene without moystnesse? or may the grasse growe without water? 12 No, but whilste it is nowe in his greennesse, though it be not cut downe, yet withereth it before any other hearbe: 13 So are the pathes of al that forget God, and the hypocrites hope shall come to naught. 14 His confidence shalbe destroyed, and his trust shalbe a spiders webbe. 15 He shal leane vpon his house, but it shal not stande: he shall holde him fast by it, yet shall it not endure. 16 It is a greene [tree] before the sunne, & shooteth foorth the braunches ouer his garden. 17 The rootes thereof are wrapped about the fountayne, and are folden about the house of stones.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 129:6, Psalms 129:7, Jeremiah 17:6, Matthew 13:20, James 1:10, James 1:11, 1 Peter 1:24

Reciprocal: Esther 5:12 - to morrow

Cross-References

Genesis 8:2
The fountaynes also of the deepe, and the windowes of heauen were stopped, and the rayne from heauen was restrayned.
Genesis 8:3
And the waters from the earth returned, goyng and comming agayne: and after the ende of the hundreth and fiftith day, the waters were abated.
Genesis 8:5
And the waters were goyng and decreasing vntyll the tenth moneth: In the tenth moneth, and in the first day of the same moneth, were the toppes of the mountaynes seene.
Genesis 8:6
And after the ende of the fourtith day, it came to passe [that] Noah opened the wyndowe of the arke which he had made,
Genesis 8:7
And he sent foorth a Rauen, whiche went out, goyng foorth, and returnyng, vntyll the waters were dryed vp vpon the earth.
Genesis 8:8
And agayne he sent foort a Doue from him, that he myght see yf the waters were abated from the vpper face of the grounde.
Genesis 8:10
And he abode yet other seuen dayes, and agayne he sent foorth the Doue out of the arke:
Psalms 27:14
Attende thou [therfore] vpon God, be of a good courage, and he will comfort thine heart: [I say] attende thou vpon God.
Isaiah 8:17
And I wyll wayte vpon the Lorde that hideth his face from the house of Iacob, and I wyll loke for him.
Isaiah 25:9
And in that day it shalbe sayde, lo this is our God, we haue wayted for hym, and he shall saue vs, this is the Lorde in whom we haue hoped, we wyll be merie and reioyce in the saluation [that commeth] of hym.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Whilst it [is] yet in its greenness,.... Before it is come to its full height, or to a proper ripeness; when as yet it has not flowered, or is about it; before the time usual for it to turn and change; it being without moisture, water, or watery clay, will change;

[and] not cut down; by the scythe, or cropped by the hand of man,

it withereth before any [other] herb; of itself; rather sooner than such that do not require so much moisture; or in the sight and presence of them, they looking on as it were, and deriding it; a poetical representation, as Schultens observes: next follows the accommodation of these similes to wicked and hypocritical men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whilst it is yet in his greenness - That is, while it seems to be in its vigor.

And is not cut down - Even when it is not cut down. If suffered to stand by itself, and if undisturbed, it will wither away. The application of this is obvious and beautiful. Such plants have no self sustaining power. They are dependent on moisture for their support. If that is withheld, they droop and die. So with the prosperous sinner and the hypocrite. His piety, compared with that which is genuine, is like the spongy texture of the paper-reed compared with the solid oak. He is sustained in his professed religion by outward prosperity, as the rush is nourished by moisture; and the moment his prosperity is withdrawn, his religion droops and dies like the flag without water.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 8:12. Whilst it is yet in his greenness — We do not know enough of the natural history of this plant to be able to discern the strength of this allusion; but we learn from it that, although this plant be very succulent, and grow to a great size, yet it is short-lived, and speedily withers; and this we may suppose to be in the dry season, or on the retreat of the waters of the Nile. However, Soon RIPE, soon ROTTEN, is a maxim in horticulture.


 
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