What Does Job 21:26 Mean in the King James?
They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for lying down also names a bed: death makes the dust the one bed shared by every body.
THE MEANING
No body is exempt from the return to dust: all lie there, and worms cover them. Human standing cannot hold that shared decay back.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that rank or prosperity can keep the body outside decay dissolves here: all lie in dust under one common covering.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁכָּבוּ
yishkavu
GROWS FROM
שכב
The root שכב (sh-k-b) means to lie down or recline.
“lie down” in this verse is yishkavu. The same consonants name the act of lying down, a bed, and a layer laid over something. Here every body takes the same posture in the dust, and the worms become its final covering.
ALSO GROWS
mishkav: Bed; a place for lying down
מִשְׁכָּב
It names the place made for lying down, so the dust becomes the shared bed beneath every earthly distinction.
shikhvah: Layer or stratum
שִׁכְבָה
A layer is something laid upon another; here the worms form the last layer over the bodies.
THE PATTERN
Every mortal body reaches the same return to dust and corruption, whatever its earthly standing.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:THE THREAD
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.Both verses use the Hebrew noun רִמָּה (rimmāh, worm or maggot). Here it covers the bodies; there it is named as kin, making decay an intimate presence rather than an abstraction.
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