In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
Parallel translations
- WEB in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
- BSB The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.
- NKJV In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?
- NASB In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?
- NLT For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.
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
In God's hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. He sustains all living things moment by moment.
Overview
Job confesses that the very breath and life of all creatures rest in God's sovereign hand. This affirms God as the ongoing giver and sustainer of life, not merely its distant origin (Acts 17:25, 28). Recognizing that our breath is in His hand humbles human pride and grounds our trust in the God who upholds us in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Acts 17:28For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
- Job 33:4The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
- Acts 17:25Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
- Num 16:22And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?
- Job 27:3All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
- Dan 5:23But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
- Ps 146:3–4Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
- John 3:6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Ps 104:29Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
- Job 34:14–15If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
- Gen 2:7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Gen 6:17And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
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 12:10 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
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