Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
Parallel translations
- WEB If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.
- KJV For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
- NKJV If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, And again You show Yourself awesome against me.
- NASB ‘And should my head be high, You would hunt me like a lion; And You would show Your power against me again.
- NLT And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me.
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
If Job dares lift his head, he feels God hunts him like a lion and again displays overwhelming power. He pictures relentless divine pursuit.
Overview
Job uses the image of a hunting lion to describe how any glimmer of confidence is met by fresh shows of God's might against him. The picture conveys exhaustion under what he reads as God's opposition. Yet the same powerful God will later answer Job not to crush but to humble and restore him, displaying that His power serves His wise purposes (Job 38-42).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Isa 38:13I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
- Lam 3:10He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
- Job 5:9the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
- Deut 28:59He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.
- Hos 13:7–8So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
- Amos 3:8The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken—who will not prophesy?
- Num 16:29–30If these men die a natural death, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 10:16 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.