King James Bible
"With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;"
Job imagines death as joining the company of history's most powerful rulers and advisors. These earthly authorities once commanded nations and shaped policies, yet now lie silent in death, emphasizing that even the mightiest cannot escape mortality. These leaders constructed grand monuments and tombs—now ruins in the desert—as their final resting places. The irony is palpable: their elaborate building projects, meant to immortalize their glory, have become empty wasteland, underscoring the futility of human ambition.