Job 34:20

In a moment they die, in the middle of the night, ¹  people ²  are shaken ³  and they pass away. The mighty are removed effortlessly. ⁴ 

They die in an instant, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and they pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.

"In a moment they die, and at midnight People are shaken and pass away, And the mighty are taken away without a hand.

In a moment they die. At midnight they all pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.

Don't people who deserve it die without notice? Don't wicked rulers tumble to their doom? When the so-called great ones are wiped out, we know God is working behind the scenes.

Suddenly they come to an end, even in the middle of the night: the blow comes on the men of wealth, and they are gone, and the strong are taken away without the hand of man.

In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

In a moment they die, in the middle of the night; The people are shaken and pass away; The mighty are taken away without a hand.

In a moment they die, in the middle of the night, ¹  people ²  are shaken ³  and they pass away. The mighty are removed effortlessly. ⁴ 

¹ tn Dhorme transposes “in the middle of the night” with “they pass away” to get a smoother reading. But the MT emphasizes the suddenness by putting both temporal ideas first. E. F. Sutcliffe leaves the order as it stands in the text, but adds a verb “they expire” after “in the middle of the night” (“Notes on Job, textual and exegetical,” Bib 30 [1949]: 79ff.).

² tn R. Gordis (Job, 389) thinks “people” here mean the people who count, the upper class.

³ tn The verb means “to be violently agitated.” There is no problem with the word in this context, but commentators have made suggestions for improving the idea. The proposal that has the most to commend it, if one were inclined to choose a new word, is the change to יִגְוָעוּ (yigva’u, “they expire”; so Ball, Holscher, Fohrer, and others).

⁴ tn Heb “not by hand.” This means without having to use force.