What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
Parallel translations
- WEB What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.
- KJV What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.
- BSB What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
- NASB “What you know I also know; I am not inferior to you.
- NLT I know as much as you do. You are no better than I am.
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 asserts equality with his friends in understanding. He refuses to be treated as their inferior.
Overview
Job declares, 'What you know, I know also; I am not inferior to you.' His friends have spoken as if from superior wisdom, but Job rejects this posture. His point is not arrogance but that their conventional theology cannot account for his suffering, so their condescension is unwarranted.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 12:3But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
- 2 Cor 11:16–18I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
- Job 42:7It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.
- 2 Cor 12:11I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.
- 2 Cor 11:4–5For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
- Job 34:35‘Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without wisdom.’
- 1 Cor 8:1–2Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
- Job 40:4–5“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
- Job 37:2Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth.
- Job 35:16Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”
- Job 15:8–9Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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 13:2 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.