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“For now You number my steps, You do not observe my sin.
Job 14:16 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
  • KJV For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
  • BSB For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.
  • NKJV For now You number my steps, But do not watch over my sin.
  • NLT For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins.

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 feels God counts his every step and watches his sin. He senses constant, searching scrutiny.

Overview

Job laments that God now counts his steps and watches over his sin. Where he hoped for tender care, he feels relentless surveillance. The same divine attentiveness that can comfort here feels oppressive to the sufferer, showing how affliction can color one's sense of God's watchful presence.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 10

  • Job 10:6that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
  • Job 31:4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
  • Job 34:21“For his eyes are on the ways of a man. He sees all his goings.
  • Prov 5:21For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
  • Ps 139:1–4For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
  • Job 33:11He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’
  • Jer 32:19great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
  • Job 13:27You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
  • Ps 56:6They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.
  • Job 10:14if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 14:16YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 14:16 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.