Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
Parallel translations
- WEB Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
- BSB Can anyone indict me? If so, I will be silent and die.
- 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 50:7–8For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
- Rom 8:33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
- Job 10:8Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
- Job 33:5–7If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up.
- Job 7:11Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 13:13Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
- Job 19:5If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
- Jer 20:9Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
- Job 33:32If thou hast anything to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee.
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 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.