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Read the Bible

King James Version

Job 21:11

They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Children;   Dancing;   Harp;   Rich, the;   Wicked (People);   Worldliness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Amusements;   Dancing;   The Topic Concordance - Desire;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Sin;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Dancing;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Music;   Wisdom literature;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Dance;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Dancing;   Job, the Book of;   Music, Instruments, Dancing;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Wealth;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Dancing;   Pashur;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Dance;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Hid;   Root;  

Encyclopedias:

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

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for January 20;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They let their little ones run around like lambs;their children skip about,
Hebrew Names Version
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
English Standard Version
They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.
New Century Version
They send out their children like a flock; their little ones dance about.
New English Translation
They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about.
Amplified Bible
"They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children skip about.
New American Standard Bible
"They send out their boys like the flock, And their children dance.
World English Bible
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They send forth their children like sheepe, and their sonnes dance.
Legacy Standard Bible
They send forth their little ones like the flock,And their children skip about.
Berean Standard Bible
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
Contemporary English Version
their children play and dance safely by themselves.
Complete Jewish Bible
They produce flocks of babies, and their children dance around.
Darby Translation
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Easy-to-Read Version
They send their children out to play like lambs. Their children dance around.
George Lamsa Translation
Their children stand firm like a flock, and their boys dance.
Good News Translation
Their children run and play like lambs
Lexham English Bible
They send out their little ones like the flock, and their children dance around.
Literal Translation
They send their little ones out as a flock; and their children dance.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They sende forth their children by flockes, and their sonnes lede the daunce.
American Standard Version
They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
Bible in Basic English
They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance,
JPS Old Testament (1917)
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
King James Version (1611)
They send foorth their little ones like a flocke, and their children dance.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They sende foorth their children by flockes, & their sonnes [leade the] daunce.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And they remain as an unfailing flock, and their children play before them, taking up the psaltery and harp;
English Revised Version
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Her litle children goen out as flockis; and her yonge children `maken fulli ioye with pleies.
Update Bible Version
They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
Webster's Bible Translation
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
New King James Version
They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
New Living Translation
They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance.
New Life Bible
They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children jump around.
New Revised Standard
They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
They send forth - like a flock - their young ones, and, their children, skip about for joy;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.
Revised Standard Version
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Young's Literal Translation
They send forth as a flock their sucklings, And their children skip,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"They send forth their little ones like the flock, And their children skip about.

Contextual Overview

7 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? 8 Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. 9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. 10 Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. 11 They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. 12 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. 13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. 14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? 16 Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 107:41, Psalms 127:3-5

Reciprocal: Genesis 31:27 - with mirth Job 27:14 - children Job 36:11 - spend Ecclesiastes 2:8 - musical instruments Ecclesiastes 8:11 - sentence Isaiah 5:12 - the harp Isaiah 14:11 - pomp Isaiah 21:4 - the night Isaiah 30:32 - every place Amos 6:5 - to the Luke 6:25 - mourn Luke 12:19 - take Luke 16:19 - clothed 1 Timothy 5:6 - she Hebrews 11:25 - the pleasures James 5:5 - have lived

Cross-References

Genesis 17:18
And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
Genesis 21:1
And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
Genesis 21:2
For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
2 Samuel 18:33
And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
Matthew 10:37
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Hebrews 12:11
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They send forth their little ones like a flock,.... Of sheep, which are creatures very increasing, and become very numerous,

Psalms 144:13; to which a large increase of families may be compared,

Psalms 107:41, for this is not to be interpreted of their kine sending or bringing forth such numbers as to be like a flock of sheep; but of the families of wicked men being increased in like manner; and the sending them forth to be understood either of the birth of their children being sent out or proceeding from them as plants out of the earth, or branches from a tree; or of their being sent out not to school to be instructed in useful learning, but into the streets to play, and pipe, and dance; and it may denote, as their number, so their being left to themselves, and being at liberty to do as they please, being under no restriction, nor any care taken of their education; at least in such a manner as to have a tendency to make them sober, virtuous, and useful in life:

and their children dance; either in a natural way, skip and frisk, and play like calves and lambs, and so are very diverting to their parents, as well as shows them to be in good health; which adds to their parents happiness and pleasure: or in an artificial way, being taught to dance; and it should be observed, it is "their" children, the children of the wicked, and not of the godly, that are thus brought up; so Abraham did not train up his children, nor Job his; no instance can be given of the children of good men being trained up in this manner, or of their dancing in an irreligious way; however, this proves in what a jovial way, and in what outward prosperity and pleasure, wicked men and their families live; which is the thing Job has in view, and is endeavouring to prove and establish.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They send forth their little ones - Their numerous and happy children they send forth to plays and pastimes.

Like a flock - In great numbers. This is an exquisitely beautiful image of prosperity. What can be more so than a group of happy children around a man’s dwelling?

And their children dance - Dance for joy. They are playful and sportive, like the lambs of the flock. It is the skip of playfulness and exultation that is referred to here, and not the set and formal dance where children are instructed in the art; the sportiveness of children in the fields, the woods, and on the lawn, and not the set step taught in the dancing-school. The word used here (רקד râqad), means “to leap, to skip” - as from joy, and then to dance. Jerome has well rendered it, “exultant lusibus” - “they leap about in their plays.” So the Septuagint, προσπαίζουσιν prospaizousin - “they frolic” or “play.” There is no evidence here that Job meant to say that they taught their children to dance; that they caused them to be trained in anything that now corresponds to dancing-schools; and that he meant to say that such a training was improper and tended to exclude God from the heart.

The image is one simply of health, abundance, exuberance of feeling, cheerfulness, prosperity. The houses were free from alarms; the fields were filled with herds and flocks, and their families of happy and playful children were around them. The object of Job was not to say that all this was in itself wrong, but that it was a plain matter of fact that God did not take away the comforts of all the wicked and overwhelm them with calamity. Of the impropriety of training children in a dancing-school, there ought to be but one opinion among the friends of religion (see National Preacher for January 1844), but there is no evidence that Job referred to any such training here, “and” this passage should not be adduced to prove that dancing is wrong. It refers to the playfulness and the cheerful sports of children, and God has made them so that they “will” find pleasure in such sports, and so that they are benefited by them. There is not a more lovely picture of happiness and of the benevolence of God any where on earth than in such groups of children, and in their sportiveness and playfulness there is no more that is wrong than there is in the gambols of the lambs of the flock.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 21:11. They send forth their little ones — It is not very clear whether this refers to the young of the flocks or to their children. The first clause may mean the former, the next clause the latter; while the young of their cattle are in flocks, their numerous children are healthy and vigorous, and dance for joy.


 
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