Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?
Parallel translations
- WEB Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
- KJV Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
- NKJV Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
- NASB “Do you hear the secret discussion of God, And limit wisdom to yourself?
- NLT Were you listening at God’s secret council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
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
Eliphaz asks if Job has eavesdropped on God's secret council. He denies Job any monopoly on wisdom.
Overview
Eliphaz challenges whether Job has heard 'the secret counsel of God' or limits wisdom to himself. He accuses Job of presuming access to divine secrets. The deeper irony is that true wisdom belongs to God alone, and humility before that wisdom, not Eliphaz's confident accusations, is what both men ultimately need.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Rom 11:34“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
- Jer 23:18But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and obeyed it?
- 1 Cor 2:16“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
- Job 11:6and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Prov 3:32for the LORD detests the perverse, but He is a friend to the upright.
- 1 Cor 2:9–11Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
- Deut 29:29The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.
- Job 13:5–6If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!
- Rom 16:25–26Now to Him who is able to strengthen you by my gospel and by the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery concealed for ages past
- Matt 11:25At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
- Job 29:4when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God rested on my tent,
- Matt 13:11He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
- Job 12:2“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!
- Matt 13:35So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.”
- Amos 3:7Surely the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.
- Ps 25:14The LORD confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.
- John 15:15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.
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 15:8 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
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