For you will forget your misery, recalling it only as waters gone by.
Parallel translations
- WEB for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it like waters that have passed away.
- KJV Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:
- NKJV Because you would forget your misery, And remember it as waters that have passed away,
- NASB “For you would forget your trouble; Like waters that have passed by, you would remember it.
- NLT You will forget your misery; it will be like water flowing away.
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
Zophar says Job would forget his misery, recalling it like waters that have flowed away. He pictures sorrow fully past.
Overview
Zophar promises that restoration would make Job's pain a distant memory, gone like water that has drained off. The image of forgotten grief is appealing, though offered on flawed terms. It echoes a true gospel hope, for God promises a day when former sorrows are remembered no more and every tear is wiped away (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 65:16Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth, and whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from My sight.
- Eccl 5:20For a man seldom considers the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
- Isa 54:9“For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.
- John 16:21A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
- Isa 54:4Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. For you will forget the shame of your youth and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
- Gen 41:51Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household.”
- Rev 7:14–17“Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
- Isa 12:1–2In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me.
- Prov 31:7Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
- Job 22:11it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
- Gen 9:11And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
- Job 6:15But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,
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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 11:16 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.