For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
Parallel translations
- WEB for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
- KJV Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
- NKJV Where the word of a king is, there is power; And who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
- NASB Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?”
- NLT His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A king's word carries supreme authority, and few can openly question what he does. This sober observation about earthly power calls for wise, careful conduct.
Overview
The verse describes the unchallengeable authority a monarch held in the ancient world. It is descriptive, naming the reality the wise must navigate, not an endorsement of tyranny. Ultimately it points beyond every earthly king to God, whose word truly is supreme and unanswerable, yet who is perfectly just (Job 9:12; Daniel 4:35).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 9:12If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’
- Rom 13:1–4Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.
- Dan 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Prov 20:2The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.
- Job 34:18–19who says to kings, ‘You are worthless!’ and to nobles, ‘You are wicked,’
- Rom 9:20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”
- Prov 19:12A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
- Prov 30:31a strutting rooster; a he-goat; and a king with his army around him.
- Dan 3:15Now, if you are ready, as soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the statue I have made. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”
- Job 33:12–13Behold, you are not right in this matter. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
- Luke 12:4–5I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.
- 1 Kgs 2:46Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. Thus the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solomon.
- 1 Kgs 2:25So King Solomon sent the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck down Adonijah, and he died.
- 1 Kgs 2:29–34It was reported to King Solomon: “Joab has fled to the tent of the LORD and is now beside the altar.” So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 8:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.