“The tents of the destroyers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure, Whom God brings into their power.
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.
- BSB The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.
- NKJV The tents of robbers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure— In what God provides by His hand.
- 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 covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?
- Ps 73:11–12They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
- Ps 37:35I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
- Ps 37:1By David. Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.
- Job 21:7–15“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
- Ps 17:14from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.
- Job 22:18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
- Jer 5:27As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 12:6 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.