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Read the Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Job 31:32

No stranger had to sleep in the street; I kept my house open to the traveler.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Hospitality;   Integrity;   Temptation;   Thompson Chain Reference - Guests;   Hospitality;   Ministers;   Social Life;   Travellers;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Hospitality;   Travellers;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Stranger;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Hospitality;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Home;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Hospitality;   Traveller;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Hospitality;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
No stranger had to spend the night on the street,for I opened my door to the traveler.
Hebrew Names Version
(The sojourner has not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveler);
King James Version
The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.
English Standard Version
(the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler),
New Century Version
No stranger ever had to spend the night in the street, because I always let travelers stay in my home.
New English Translation
But no stranger had to spend the night outside, for I opened my doors to the traveler—
Amplified Bible
"The stranger has not lodged in the street, Because I have opened my door to the traveler.
New American Standard Bible
"The stranger has not spent the night outside, For I have opened my doors to the traveler.
World English Bible
(The sojourner has not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveler);
Geneva Bible (1587)
The stranger did not lodge in the streete, but I opened my doores vnto him, that went by the way.
Legacy Standard Bible
The sojourner has not lodged outside,For I have opened my doors to the traveler—
Berean Standard Bible
but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler-
Contemporary English Version
and travelers were always welcome.
Darby Translation
The stranger did not lodge without; I opened my doors to the pathway.
Easy-to-Read Version
I always invited strangers into my home so that they would not have to sleep in the streets.
George Lamsa Translation
And the stranger I did not let lodge in the street, and I opened my door to the guest);
Good News Translation
I invited travelers into my home and never let them sleep in the streets.
Lexham English Bible
An alien has not lodged in the street; I have opened my door to the traveler.
Literal Translation
The stranger did not sleep in the street, for I opened my doors to the traveler;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I haue not suffred a straunger to lye wt out, but opened my dores vnto him.
American Standard Version
(The sojourner hath not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveller);
Bible in Basic English
The traveller did not take his night's rest in the street, and my doors were open to anyone on a journey;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The stranger did not lodge in the street; my doors I opened to the roadside.
King James Version (1611)
The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doores to the trauailer.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The straunger dyd not lodge in the streete, but I opened my doores vnto him that went by the way.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to every one that came:)
English Revised Version
The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
my dore was opyn to a weiegoere;
Update Bible Version
(The sojourner has not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveler);
Webster's Bible Translation
The stranger did not lodge in the street: [but] I opened my doors to the traveler.
New King James Version
(But no sojourner had to lodge in the street,For I have opened my doors to the traveler [fn] );
New Living Translation
I have never turned away a stranger but have opened my doors to everyone.
New Life Bible
The stranger has not stayed in the street, for I have opened my doors to the traveler.
New Revised Standard
the stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler—
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Outside, the sojourner lodged not for the night, My doors - to the wayfarer, I threw open.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.
Revised Standard Version
(the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the wayfarer);
Young's Literal Translation
In the street doth not lodge a stranger, My doors to the traveller I open.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The alien has not lodged outside, For I have opened my doors to the traveler.

Contextual Overview

24 "If I made gold my hope, if I said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,' 25 if I took joy in my great wealth, in my having acquired so much; 26 or if, on seeing the shining sun or the full moon as it moved through the sky, 27 my heart was secretly seduced, so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand; 28 then this too would be a criminal offense, for I would have been lying to God on high. 29 "Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me? Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him? 30 No, I did not allow my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse. 31 "Was there anyone in my tent who didn't say, ‘No one can find a single person whom he has not filled with his meat'? 32 No stranger had to sleep in the street; I kept my house open to the traveler.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The stranger: Job 31:17, Job 31:18, Genesis 19:2, Genesis 19:3, Judges 19:15, Judges 19:20, Judges 19:21, Isaiah 58:7, Matthew 25:35, Matthew 25:40, Matthew 25:44, Matthew 25:45, Romans 12:13, 1 Timothy 5:10, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Peter 4:9

traveller: or, way

Reciprocal: Genesis 19:1 - rose Exodus 2:20 - call him Job 19:15 - count me Matthew 10:11 - inquire

Cross-References

Genesis 13:8
Avram said to Lot, "Please, let's not have quarreling between me and you, or between my herdsmen and yours, since we're kinsmen.
Genesis 19:7
and said, "Please, my brothers, don't do such a wicked thing.
Genesis 30:33
And I will let my integrity stand as witness against me in the future: when you come to look over the animals constituting my wages, every goat that isn't speckled or spotted and every sheep that isn't brown will count as stolen by me."
Genesis 31:3
Adonai said to Ya‘akov, "Return to the land of your ancestors, to your kinsmen; I will be with you."
Genesis 31:5
He said to them, "I see by the way your father looks that he feels differently toward me than before; but the God of my father has been with me.
Genesis 31:9
This is how God has taken away your father's animals and given them to me.
Genesis 31:12
He continued, ‘Raise your eyes now, and look: all the male goats mating with the females are streaked, speckled and mottled; for I have seen everything Lavan has been doing to you.
Genesis 31:17
(vi) Then Ya‘akov got up, put his sons and wives on the camels,
Genesis 31:19
Now Lavan had gone to shear his sheep, so Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father,
Genesis 31:20
and Ya‘akov outwitted Lavan the Arami by not telling him of his intended flight.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The stranger did not lodge in the street,.... By a stranger is not meant an unconverted man, that is a stranger to God and godliness, to Christ, and the way of salvation by him, to the Spirit of God and spiritual things, nor a good man, who is a stranger and pilgrim on earth; but one that is out of his nation and country, and at a distance from it, whether a good man or a bad man; these Job would not suffer to lie in the streets in the night season, exposed to the air and the inclemencies of it; see Judges 19:15;

[but] I opened my doors to the traveller; even all the doors of his house, to denote his great liberality, that as many as would might enter it; and this was done by himself, or, however, by his order; and some think that it signifies that he was at his door, waiting and watching for travellers to invite them in, as Abraham and Lot,

Genesis 18:1; or his doors were opened "to the way" i: as it may be rendered, to the roadside; his house was built by the wayside; or, however, the doors which lay towards that side were thrown open for travellers to come in at as they pleased, and when they would; so very hospitable and kind to strangers and travellers was Job, and so welcome were they to his house and the entertainment of it, see Hebrews 13:2.

i לארח "ad semitam seu viam", Mercerus; "versus viam", Piscator, Michaelis; לדרך, Ben Gersom.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The stranger did not lodge in the street - This is designed to illustrate the sentiment in the previous verse, and to express his consciousness that he had showed the most generous hospitality.

But I opened my doors to the traveler - Margin, or way. The word used here ארח 'ôrach means properly way, path, road; but it also denotes those who travel on such a way; see Job 6:19, “The troops of Tema looked,” Hebrew ארח תימא têymâ' 'ôrach - the ways, or paths of Tema; that is, those who traveled in those paths. Vulgate here, viatori. Septuagint, “To everyone that came” - παντί ἐλθόντι panti elthonti. This was one of the methods of hospitality - the central and crowning virtue among the Arabs to this day, and among the Orientals in all ages. Among the boasts of hospitality, showing the place which this virtue had in their estimation, and the methods by which it was practiced, we may refer to such expressions as the following: “I occupy the public way with my tent;” that is, to every traveler without distinction, my tent is open and my table is spread. “He makes the public path the place for the cords of his tent;” that is, he fixed the pins and cords of his tent in the midst of the public highway, so that every traveler might enter. These examples are quoted by Schultens from the Hamasa. Another beautiful example may be taken from the same collection of Arabic poems. I give the Latin translation of Schultens:

Quam saepe latratum imitanti viatori, cui resonabat echo

Suscitavi ignem, cujus lignum luculentum

Properusque surrexi ad eum, ut praedae mihi loco esset,

Prae metu ne populus mens eum ante me occuparet.

That is, “How often to the traveler, imitating the bark of the dog, and the echo of whose voice was heard, have I kindled a fire, the shining wood of which I quick raised up to him, as one would hasten to the prey, in fear lest someone of my own people should anticipate me in the privileges and rites of hospitality.” The allusion to the imitation of the barking of a dog here, refers to the custom of travelers at night, who make this noise when they need a place of rest. This sound is responded to by the dogs which watch around the tents of their masters, and the sound is the signal for a general rush to show hospitality to the stranger. Burckhardt, speaking of the inhabitants of the Houran - the country east of the Jordan, and south of Damascus, says, “A traveler may alight at any house he pleases; a mat will be immediately spread for him, coffee made, and a breakfast or dinner set before him. In entering a village it has often happened to me, that several persons presented themselves, each begging that I would lodge at his house. It is a point of honor with the host never to receive the smallest return from a guest. Besides the private habitations, which offer to every traveler a secure night’s shelter, there is in every village the Medhafe of the Sheikh, where all strangers of decent appearance are received and entertained. It is the duty of the Sheikh to maintain this Medhafe, which is like a tavern, with the difference that the host himself pays the bill. The Sheikh has public allowance to defray these expenses, and hence a man of the Houran, intending to travel about for a fortnight never thinks of putting a single para in his pocket; he is sure of being every where well received, and of living better, perhaps, than at his own home.” Travels in Syria, pp. 294, 295.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 31:32. The stranger did not lodge in the street — My kindness did not extend merely to my family, domestics, and friends; the stranger - he who was to me perfectly unknown, and the traveller - he who was on his journey to some other district, found my doors ever open to receive them, and were refreshed with my bed and my board.


 
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