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If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
Job 11:10 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
  • BSB If He comes along to imprison you, or convenes a court, who can stop Him?
  • NKJV “IfHe passes by, imprisons, and gathers to judgment, Then who can hinder Him?
  • NASB “If He passes by or apprehends people, Or calls an assembly, who can restrain Him?
  • NLT If God comes and puts a person in prison or calls the court to order, who can stop him?

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 God arrests, imprisons, or convenes a court, no one can oppose Him. Zophar stresses God's irresistible sovereignty.

Overview

Zophar affirms that God acts with unchallengeable authority to seize, confine, or judge as He wills. The doctrine is true: God's sovereign power cannot be thwarted (Isaiah 14:27; Daniel 4:35). Rightly understood, this sovereignty is the believer's comfort, for the unstoppable God works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • Job 9:12–13Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
  • Rev 3:7“To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:
  • Job 12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
  • Job 38:8“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
  • Job 9:4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
  • Ps 31:8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
  • Job 5:18For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole.
  • Isa 41:27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
  • Job 34:29When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,
  • Dan 4:35All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, What are you doing?
  • Deut 32:30How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?

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 11:10YouTube · 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 11:10 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.