For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
Parallel translations
- WEB If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.
- BSB Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against 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 reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
- Lam 3:10He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
- Job 5:9Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
- Deut 28:59Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
- Hos 13:7–8Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
- Amos 3:8The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
- Num 16:29–30If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me.
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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.