My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.
Parallel translations
- WEB My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
- KJV My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto 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 5:7During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
- Ps 142:2I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.
- Job 12:4–5I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.
- Luke 6:11–12But the scribes and Pharisees were filled with rage and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
- Job 16:4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Ps 109:4In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
- Job 17:2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
- Hos 12:4–5Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there—
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
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