Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?
- BSB Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?
- NKJV Will You frighten a leaf driven to and fro? And will You pursue dry stubble?
- NASB “Will You scare away a scattered leaf? Or will You pursue the dry chaff?
- NLT Would you terrify a leaf blown by the wind? Would you chase dry straw?
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 would pursue someone as frail as a wind-driven leaf. He feels too weak to be worth such opposition.
Overview
With the images of a driven leaf and dry stubble, Job marvels that God would harass one so fragile. He cannot understand why the Almighty would expend such force against so weak a creature. The verse expresses both his sense of frailty and his bewilderment at the intensity of his affliction.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Lev 26:36And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
- Job 21:18They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
- 1 Sam 24:14After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
- Isa 17:13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
- Matt 12:20A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.
- Job 14:3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with 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 13:25 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.