Should your babbling put others to silence? Will you scoff without rebuke?
Parallel translations
- WEB Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
- KJV Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
- NKJV Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one rebuke you?
- NASB “Shall your boasts silence people? And will you scoff, and no one rebuke?
- NLT Should I remain silent while you babble on? When you mock God, shouldn’t someone make you ashamed?
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 charges that Job's boasts and mockery should not silence others or go unrebuked. He frames Job's defense as arrogant scoffing.
Overview
Zophar interprets Job's protests of innocence as boastful mockery deserving rebuke. He misreads Job's anguished honesty as pride. The misjudgment shows how easily we condemn a suffering brother's words; Scripture instead calls us to mourn with those who mourn and to be slow to accuse (Romans 12:15; James 1:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 17:2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
- Job 24:25If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”
- Job 21:3Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
- Ps 35:16Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.
- Jer 15:17I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.
- 2 Th 3:14Take note of anyone who does not obey the instructions we have given in this letter. Do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed.
- Job 34:7What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water?
- Titus 2:8and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.
- Ps 83:16Cover their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name, O LORD.
- Job 13:4You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
- Job 12:4I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.
- Jude 1:18when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.”
- Job 13:9Would it be well when He examined you? Could you deceive Him like a man?
- Job 15:2–3“Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 11:3 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
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