Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?
- BSB Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your 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 19:11He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
- Lam 2:5The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
- Ps 13:1How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
- Ps 44:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
- Isa 8:17And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
- Job 33:10Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,
- Deut 32:20And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
- Ps 88:14LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
- 1 Sam 28:16Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?
- Ps 10:1Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
- Job 16:9He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
- Job 30:21Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.
- Job 31:35Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.
- 2 Th 3:15Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
- Ps 77:6–9I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
- Job 29:2–3Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
- Job 10:2I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.