Job 4:20

They are destroyed ¹  between morning and evening; ²  they perish forever ³  without anyone regarding it. ⁴ 

Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish for ever.

‘Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever.

They are alive in the morning, but by evening they are dead, gone forever without a trace.

These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices--gone without a trace.

Between morning and evening they are completely broken; they come to an end for ever, and no one takes note.

Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it.

They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; They perish forever, with no one regarding.

They are destroyed ¹  between morning and evening; ²  they perish forever ³  without anyone regarding it. ⁴ 

¹ tn The form יֻכַּתּוּ (yukkatu) is the Hophal imperfect of the root כָּתַת (katat, “to be pounded, pulverized, reduced to ashes” [Jer 46:5; Mic 1:7]). It follows the Aramaic formation (see GKC 182 §67.y). This line appears to form a parallelism with “they are crushed like a moth,” the third unit of the last verse; but it has its own parallel idea in this verse. See D. J. A. Clines, “Verb Modality and the Interpretation of Job 4:20, 21,” VT 30 (1980): 354-57.

² tn Or “from morning to evening.” The expression “from morning to evening” is probably not a merism, but rather describes the time between the morning and the evening, as in Isa 38:12: “from day to night you make an end of me.”

³ sn The second colon expresses the consequence of this day-long reducing to ashes – they perish forever! (see 20:7 and 14:20).

⁴ tn This rendering is based on the interpretation that מִבְּלִי מֵשִׂים (mibbÿli mesim) uses the Hiphil participle of שִׂים (sim, “set”) with an understood object “heart” to gain the idiom of “taking to heart, considering, regarding it” – hence, “without anyone regarding it.” Some commentators have attempted to resolve the difficulty by emending the text, a procedure that has no more support than positing the ellipses. One suggested emendation does have the LXX in its favor, namely, a reading of מֹשִׁיעַ (moshia’, “one who saves”) in place of מֵשִׂים (mesim, “one who sets”). This would lead to “without one who saves they perish forever” (E. Dhorme, Job, 55).