Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?
- KJV Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
- NKJV Why do You hide Your face, And regard me as Your enemy?
- NASB “Why do You hide Your face And consider me Your enemy?
- NLT Why do you turn away from me? Why do you treat me as your enemy?
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 asks why God hides His face and treats him as an enemy. The sense of God's hostility is his deepest pain.
Overview
Job cries, 'Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?' The withdrawal of God's favor grieves him more than his losses. Believers can echo this anguish, yet the gospel assures that in Christ God's face is turned toward His people in grace, never finally hidden from those He loves.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Job 19:11His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.
- Lam 2:5The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
- Ps 13:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
- Ps 44:24Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?
- Isa 8:17I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.
- Job 33:10Yet God finds occasions against me; He counts me as His enemy.
- Deut 32:20He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation—children of unfaithfulness.
- Ps 88:14Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?
- 1 Sam 28:16“Why do you consult me,” asked Samuel, “since the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy?
- Ps 10:1Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide in times of trouble?
- Job 16:9His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
- Job 30:21You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
- Job 31:35(Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.
- 2 Th 3:15Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
- Ps 77:6–9At night I remembered my song; in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:
- Job 29:2–3“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,
- Job 10:2I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 13:24 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.