“Will it go well when He examines you? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man?
Parallel translations
- WEB Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
- KJV Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
- BSB Would it be well when He examined you? Could you deceive Him like a man?
- NKJV Will it be well when He searches you out? Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man?
- NLT What will happen when he finds out what you are doing? Can you fool him as easily as you fool people?
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 warns that God will scrutinize his friends as well. They cannot deceive the One who searches all hearts.
Overview
Job asks whether it would go well if God searched them out, and whether they could deceive God as one deceives a man. The God who tries the heart cannot be fooled by clever theology. Their false defense of God exposes them to the very judgment they pronounce on Job.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Gal 6:7–8Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Jer 17:10“I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Ps 44:21won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
- Isa 28:22Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.
- Ps 139:23Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
- Job 34:36I wish that Job were tried to the end, because of his answering like wicked men.
- Job 17:2Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
- Job 12:16With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
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 13:9 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.