What do you gain by oppressing me? Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands, while smiling on the schemes of the wicked?
Parallel translations
- WEB Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
- KJV Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
- BSB Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
- NKJV Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, That You should despise the work of Your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked?
- NASB ‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the work of Your hands, And to look favorably on the plan of the wicked?
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
Job questions whether it pleases God to oppress the work of His own hands while favoring the wicked. He appeals to God's character against his experience.
Overview
Job cannot reconcile God's apparent oppression of him, His own creature, with God's goodness, especially while the wicked seem to prosper. He rightly assumes God does not delight in crushing what He has made. This tension is ultimately resolved at the cross, where God's justice and love meet, and in the final judgment that sets all things right (Romans 3:26).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Isa 64:8But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.
- Ps 138:8Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
- Job 14:15You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
- Jer 12:1–3You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?
- Job 34:18–19Who says to a king, ‘Vile!’ or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?
- Job 22:18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
- 1 Pet 4:19Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.
- Job 34:5–7For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right:
- Job 9:24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?
- Lam 3:2–18He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
- Job 36:7–9He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
- Job 9:22“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
- Job 21:16Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
- Ps 69:33For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
- Job 40:2“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
- Job 8:20“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.
- Job 40:8Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
- Job 36:17–18“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.
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 10:3 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.