Job 27:14

Easy-to-Read Version

They may have many children, but all of them will be killed in war. Or their children will not have enough to eat.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword;his descendants will never have enough food.

Hebrew Names Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

King James Version
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

English Standard Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread.

New Century Version
They may have many children, but the sword will kill them. Their children who are left will never have enough to eat.

New English Translation
If his children increase—it is for the sword! His offspring never have enough to eat.

Amplified Bible
Though his children are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not have sufficient bread.

New American Standard Bible
Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not be satisfied with bread.

World English Bible
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Geneva Bible (1587)
If his children be in great nomber, the sworde shall destroy them, and his posteritie shall not be satisfied with bread.

Legacy Standard Bible
Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword;And his offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

Berean Standard Bible
Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

Contemporary English Version
They may have many children, but most of them will go hungry or suffer a violent death.

Complete Jewish Bible
if his sons become many, they go to the sword; and his children never have enough to eat.

Darby Translation
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread;

George Lamsa Translation
If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Good News Translation
They may have many sons, but all will be killed in war; their children never have enough to eat.

Lexham English Bible
If their children multiply, it is for the sword, and his offspring do not have enough to eat.

Literal Translation
If his sons become numerous, the sword is for them; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf he get many childre, they shal perish wt the swearde, & his posterite shall haue scarcenesse of bred.

American Standard Version
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Bible in Basic English
If his children are increased, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough bread.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not have bread enough.

King James Version (1611)
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offpring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If he get many children, they shall perishe with the sworde, and his posteritie shall haue scarcenesse of bread.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if their children be many, they shall be for slaughter: and if they grow up, they shall beg.

English Revised Version
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If hise children ben multiplied, thei schulen be slayn in swerd; and hise sones sones schulen not be fillid with breed.

Update Bible Version
If his sons are multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Webster's Bible Translation
If his children are multiplied, [it is] for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

New King James Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

New Living Translation
They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death.

New Life Bible
If he has many sons, they will be killed by the sword. And his children will not have enough bread to eat.

New Revised Standard
If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring have not enough to eat.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If his children be multiplied, for them, there is the sword, and, his offspring, shall not be filled with bread;

Douay-Rheims Bible
If his sons be multiplied, they shall be for the sword, and his grandsons shall not be filled with bread.

Revised Standard Version
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough to eat.

Young's Literal Translation
If his sons multiply -- for them [is] a sword. And his offspring [are] not satisfied [with] bread.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not be satisfied with bread.

Contextual Overview

¹¹ "I will teach you about God's power. I will not hide anything about God All-Powerful. ¹² But you have seen it all with your own eyes. So why do you say such useless things? ¹³ "Here is what God has planned for those who are evil. This is what cruel people will get from God All-Powerful. ¹⁴ They may have many children, but all of them will be killed in war. Or their children will not have enough to eat. ¹⁵ All those who are left will die, and the widows will not even cry for them. ¹⁶ Evil people collect silver as easily as dirt. They may have so many clothes that they are piled up like clay. ¹⁷ But their piles of clothes will be worn by those who have lived right. All that silver will be given to those who have done no wrong. ¹⁸ Evil people might build houses, but they will not last long. They will be like a spider's web or a guard's tent. ¹⁹ They might be rich when they go to bed, but when they open their eyes, all their riches will be gone. ²⁰ Terrible fears will come over them like a flood, like a storm in the night that blows everything away.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

children: Job 21:11, Job 21:12, Deuteronomy 28:32, Deuteronomy 28:41, 2 Kings 9:7, 2 Kings 9:8, 2 Kings 10:6-10, Esther 5:11, Esther 9:5-10, Psalms 109:13, Hosea 9:13, Hosea 9:14, Luke 23:29

his offspring: 1 Samuel 2:5

Reciprocal: Job 1:18 - Thy sons Job 4:11 - the stout Job 5:4 - children Job 20:28 - increase Psalms 17:14 - leave Psalms 37:9 - evildoers Psalms 37:28 - but Hosea 9:12 - yet

Cross-References

Genesis 25:28
Isaac loved Esau. He liked to eat the animals Esau killed. But Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 27:2
Isaac said, "I am old. Maybe I will die soon.

Genesis 27:3
So take your bow and arrows and go hunting. Kill an animal for me to eat.

Genesis 27:4
Prepare the food that I love. Bring it to me, and I will eat it. Then I will bless you before I die."

Genesis 27:7
Your father said, ‘Kill an animal for me to eat. Prepare the food for me, and I will eat it. Then, with the Lord as witness, I will bless you before I die.'

Genesis 27:9
Go out to our goats and bring me two young ones. I will prepare them the way your father loves them.

Genesis 27:17
Then she got the food she had cooked and gave it to Jacob.

Genesis 27:31
Esau prepared the food in the special way his father loved. He brought it to his father and said, "Father, I am your son. Get up and eat the meat from the animals that I killed for you. Then you can bless me."

Psalms 141:4
Take away any desire to do evil. Keep me from joining the wicked in doing wrong. Help me stay away from their feasts.

Luke 21:34
"Be careful not to spend your time having parties and getting drunk or worrying about this life. If you do that, you won't be able to think straight, and the end might come when you are not ready.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If his children be multiplied,.... As it is possible they may; this is one external blessing common to good men and bad men. Haman, that proud oppressor, left ten sons behind him, and wicked Ahab had seventy, Esther 9:12:

[it is] for the sword; for them that kill with the sword, as the Targum; to be killed with it, as in the two instances above; Haman's ten sons were slain by the sword of the Jews, Esther 9:13, and Ahab's seventy sons by the sword of Jehu, or those he ordered to slay them,

2 Kings 10:7. The children of such wicked persons are oftentimes put to death, either by the sword of the enemy, fall in battle in an hostile way, which is one of God's four sore judgments, Ezekiel 14:21; or, leading a most wicked life, commit such capital crimes as bring them into the hand of the civil magistrate, who bears not the sword in vain, but is the minister of God, a revengeful executioner of wrath on wicked men; or else they die by the sword of the murderer, being brought into the world for such, and through their riches become their prey, Hosea 9:13; or if neither of these is the case, yet they at last, let them prosper as they will, fall a sacrifice to the glittering sword of divine justice, whetted and drawn in wrath against them; the sword of the enemy seems chiefly intended:

and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread; such of them as die not by the sword shall perish by famine, which is another of God's sore judgments; though this may respect the grandchildren of wicked men, whom God visits to the third and fourth generation; the Targum paraphrases it, his children's children, and so Sephorno; to which agrees the Vulgate Latin version: the sense is, that the posterity of such wicked men, when they are dead and gone, shall be so reduced as to beg their bread, and shall not have a sufficiency of that for the support of nature, but shall die for want of food.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword - That is, they shall be slain in war. The first calamities which it is here said would come upon a man, relate to his family Job 27:14-18; the next are those that would come upon himself, Job 27:19-23. All the sentiments here expressed are found in the various speeches of the friends of Job, and, according to the interpretation suggested above, this is designed to represent their sentiments. They maintained that if a wicked man was blessed with a numerous family, and seemed to be prosperous, it was only that the punishment might come the more heavily upon him, for that they certainly would be cut off; see Job 18:19-20; Job 20:10.

And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread - This sentiment was advanced by Zophar, Job 20:10; see the notes at that verse.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 27:14. If his children be multiplied — As numerous families were supposed to be a proof of the benediction of the Almighty, Job shows that this is not always the case; for the offspring of the wicked shall be partly cut off by violent deaths, and partly reduced to great poverty.