Can anyone indict me? If so, I will be silent and die.
Parallel translations
- WEB Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
- KJV Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
- NKJV Who is he who will contend with me? If now I hold my tongue, I perish.
- NASB “Who could contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.
- NLT Who can argue with me over this? And if you prove me wrong, I will remain silent and die.
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 challenges anyone to disprove his case, ready to die if proven wrong. His confidence is staked on the truth.
Overview
Job asks who will contend with him, saying that if anyone can refute him he will hold his peace and die. So sure is he of his integrity that he will accept death if proven guilty. This bold challenge shows the depth of his conviction that his suffering is not the punishment for hidden sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Isa 50:7–8Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.
- Rom 8:33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
- Job 10:8Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
- Job 33:5–7Refute me if you can; prepare your case and confront me.
- Job 7:11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 13:13Be silent, and I will speak. Then let come to me what may.
- Job 19:5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,
- Jer 20:9If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
- Job 33:32But if you have something to say, answer me; speak up, for I would like to vindicate you.
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 13:19 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.