I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.
Parallel translations
- KJV I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
- BSB I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;
- NKJV I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces; He has set me up for His target,
- NASB “I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by my neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target.
- NLT “I was living quietly until he shattered me. He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces. Then he set me up as his target,
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 recalls his former ease shattered as God seized and crushed him, setting him up as a target. His peace was violently undone.
Overview
Job describes how God broke apart his settled life, dashing him to pieces and making him a mark for attack. The imagery conveys sudden, overwhelming calamity from God's hand. While Job cannot see the reason, the reader knows his trial serves a greater purpose, reminding us that God's people are sometimes broken not in wrath but for ends beyond their sight.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Job 7:20If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
- Lam 3:11–12He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
- Lam 3:4He has made my flesh and my skin old; he has broken my bones.
- Job 9:17For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
- Ps 44:19Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
- Job 29:18–19Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house, I shall count my days as the sand.
- Matt 21:44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
- Ezek 29:7When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.”
- Job 4:10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
- Job 29:3when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
- Rom 16:4who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.
- Job 7:12Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
- Job 15:26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
- Job 1:2–3There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
- Job 3:26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble comes.”
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 16:12 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.