The Meaning of Job 4:21 Explained

Job 4:21

KJV: Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.

YLT: Hath not their excellency been removed with them? They die, and not in wisdom!

Darby: Is not their tent-cord torn away in them? they die, and without wisdom.

ASV: Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Doth not their excellency  [which is] in them go away?  they die,  even without wisdom. 

What does Job 4:21 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 4:1-21 - "shall Mortal Man Be More Just Than God?"
The first cycle of speeches is opened by Eliphaz. It must be remembered that he and the two others believed that special suffering resulted from and was the sign of special sin. Job's calamities, in the light of that thought, seemed to prove that he who had been considered a paragon of perfection was not what they had supposed. According to their philosophy, if only he would confess his sin, all would be well and the sun would shine again upon his path.
Eliphaz recounts a visitation, in a night vision, from the unseen world, which is described with marvelous power. Emphasis is laid on the infinite distance between God and man, and on the impossibility of a mortal being accounted just in the presence of divine purity. Of course the suggestion is that Job was suffering the penalty of sin which, though it had eluded human eyes, was naked and open before God. An angel seems dark against God's pure light, and if an angel is deficient, how much more man! [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 4

1  Eliphaz reproves Job that the innocent do not suffer
7  He teaches God's judgments to be not for the righteous, but for the wicked
12  His fearful vision to humble the excellency of creatures before God

What do the individual words in Job 4:21 mean?

Does not go away their own excellence in they die and even without wisdom
הֲלֹא־ ؟ נִסַּ֣ע יִתְרָ֣ם בָּ֑ם יָ֝מ֗וּתוּ וְלֹ֣א בְחָכְמָֽה

הֲלֹא־  Does  not 
Parse: Adverb, Negative particle
Root: הֲלֹא 
Sense: not, no.
؟ נִסַּ֣ע  go  away 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: נָסַע  
Sense: to pull out, pull up, set out, journey, remove, set forward, depart.
יִתְרָ֣ם  their  own  excellence 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine plural
Root: יֶתֶר 
Sense: .
יָ֝מ֗וּתוּ  they  die 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine plural
Root: מוּת  
Sense: to die, kill, have one executed.
וְלֹ֣א  and  even  without 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Adverb, Negative particle
Root: הֲלֹא 
Sense: not, no.
בְחָכְמָֽה  wisdom 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, feminine singular
Root: חָכְמָה  
Sense: wisdom.