Job 4:8

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.

Job 4:8 in Other Translations

8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.

8 It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.

8 In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.

Job 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

Job 4:8

Even as I have seen
Here he goes about to prove, by his own experience, the destruction of wicked men; and would intimate, that Job was such an one, because of the ruin he was fallen into:

they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same;
figurative expressions, denoting that such who devise iniquity in their hearts, form and plan schemes of it in their minds, signified by "plowing iniquity", and who were studious and diligent to put into practice what they devised; who took a great deal of pains to commit sin, and were constant at it, expressed by "sowing wickedness": these sooner or later eat the fruit of their doings, are punished in proportion to their crimes, even in this life, as well as hereafter, see ( Hosea 8:7 ) ( 10:13 ) ( Galatians 6:7 Galatians 6:8 ) ; though a Jewish commentator ^F2 observes, that the thought of sin is designed by the first phrase; the endeavour to bring it into action by the second; and the finishing of the work, or the actual commission of the evil, by the third; the punishment thereof being what is expressed in ( Job 4:9 ) ; the Targum applies this to the generation of the flood.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 R. Simeon Bar Tzemach.

Job 4:8 In-Context

6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?

7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.

9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.

10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.

Cross References

• 1. Job 5:3; Job 15:17
• 2. Judges 14:18; Job 5:6; Job 15:35; Psalms 7:14; Isaiah 59:4
• 3. Psalms 7:15; Psalms 9:15; Proverbs 11:18; Proverbs 22:8; Isaiah 17:11; Hosea 8:7; Hosea 10:13; Galatians 6:7-8