The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.
Parallel translations
- WEB The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.
- KJV The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
- NKJV The tents of robbers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure— In what God provides by His hand.
- NASB “The tents of the destroyers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure, Whom God brings into their power.
- NLT But robbers are left in peace, and those who provoke God live in safety— though God keeps them in his power.
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 points out that robbers prosper and those who provoke God live secure, trusting their own strength as their god. He confronts the puzzle of the wicked thriving.
Overview
Job challenges the friends' neat theology by noting that the wicked often flourish while the godly suffer. This honest observation about life's inequities runs throughout Scripture and resists simplistic retribution doctrine (Psalm 73:3-12; Jeremiah 12:1). It ultimately presses us toward the final judgment and the cross, where God's justice is fully upheld.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 9:24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?
- Ps 73:11–12The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”
- Ps 37:35I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Ps 37:1Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
- Job 21:7–15Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
- Ps 17:14from such men, O LORD, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.
- Job 22:18But it was He who filled their houses with good things; so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
- Jer 5:27Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 12:6 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.