My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
Parallel translations
- KJV My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
- BSB My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.
- NKJV My friends scorn me; My eyes pour out tears to God.
- NASB “My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God,
- NLT My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God.
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's friends scorn him, so he pours out his tears to God. He turns from human contempt to divine audience.
Overview
As his companions mock rather than comfort, Job directs his weeping eyes upward to God. He finds in God the one hearer worthy of his grief. This movement from rejection by men to appeal to God models how the suffering believer takes refuge in the Lord when human help fails, trusting that God hears the cry of the afflicted (Psalm 34:17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Heb 5:7He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
- Ps 142:2I pour out my complaint before him. I tell him my troubles.
- Job 12:4–5I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
- Luke 6:11–12But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
- Job 16:4I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,
- Ps 109:4In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer.
- Job 17:2Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
- Hos 12:4–5Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,
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 16:20 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.