You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
Parallel translations
- WEB You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
- KJV Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
- BSB You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.
- NKJV You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.
- NASB “You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.
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 pictures a future when God will call and he will joyfully answer. He imagines God longing for the work of His hands.
Overview
Job envisions God calling and himself answering, with God yearning for 'the work of your hands.' Beneath his grief lies confidence that God still cherishes what He has made. This tender hope that the Creator desires fellowship with His creature is realized in Christ, through whom God restores and delights in His redeemed people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 13:22Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer me.
- Ps 138:8Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
- Job 10:3Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
- 1 Pet 4:19Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.
- Job 10:8“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
- Job 7:21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”
- 1 Jn 2:28Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
- Ps 50:4–5He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
- 1 Th 4:17then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 14:15 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.