You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
Parallel translations
- WEB But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
- KJV But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
- NKJV But you forgers of lies, You are all worthless physicians.
- NASB “But you smear me with lies; You are all worthless physicians.
- NLT As for you, you smear me with lies. As physicians, you are worthless quacks.
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 accuses his friends of inventing falsehoods and offering worthless cures. Their counsel only deepens his wound.
Overview
Job calls his friends 'forgers of lies' and 'physicians of no value.' They have whitewashed his situation with false explanations and prescribed remedies that heal nothing. True comfort cannot rest on misrepresenting God or twisting the facts of a sufferer's life, a warning to all who would counsel the afflicted.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 119:69Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart.
- Jer 6:14They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
- Jer 23:32“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.
- Mark 5:26She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.
- Job 16:2“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
- Jer 46:11Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
- Hos 5:13When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
- Ezek 34:4You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
- Jer 30:13There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.
- Mark 2:17On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Job 4:7–11Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
- Job 22:6–30For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.
- Job 5:1–5“Call out if you please, but who will answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
- Job 6:21For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid.
- Job 21:27–34Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
- Job 18:5–21Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.
- Job 8:3–4Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
- Exod 20:16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
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 13:4 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.