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Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
Job 1:10 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
  • KJV Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
  • BSB Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
  • NASB Have You not made a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
  • NLT You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is!

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

Satan claims Job is godly only because God has hedged and prospered him. He alleges Job's faith is bought by protection and wealth.

Overview

The accuser admits God's protective hedge around Job, his house, and his possessions, ironically testifying to God's faithful care. His argument is that remove the blessings and the piety will vanish. Believers may take comfort that God's hedge of protection is real, while learning that true faith must rest on God Himself and not merely His gifts.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 28

  • Ps 34:7Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
  • Zech 2:5For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.
  • 1 Pet 1:5who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
  • Deut 28:2–6All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.
  • Prov 10:22Yahweh’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.
  • Job 31:25If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;
  • Zech 2:8For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.
  • Ps 107:38He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.
  • Gen 15:1After these things Yahweh’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
  • Deut 7:13He will love you, bless you, multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
  • Gen 26:12Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
  • Ps 90:17Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.
  • Isa 5:5Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
  • Job 42:12So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.
  • 1 Sam 25:16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
  • Isa 5:2He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
  • Deut 33:27The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’
  • Gen 30:43The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
  • Ps 128:1–4A Song of Ascents. Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, who walks in his ways.
  • Gen 49:25even by the God of your father, who will help you; by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
  • Ps 71:21Increase my honor, and comfort me again.
  • Gen 30:30For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?”
  • Job 29:6when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
  • Deut 33:11Yahweh, bless his skills. Accept the work of his hands. Strike through the hips of those who rise up against him, of those who hate him, that they not rise again.”
  • Ps 5:12For you will bless the righteous. Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
  • Gen 39:5From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, Yahweh blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. Yahweh’s blessing was on all that he had, in the house and in the field.
  • Job 1:3His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.
  • Ps 80:12Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 1:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 1:10 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.