His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
- KJV He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
- NKJV He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
- NASB “His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My enemy glares at me.
- NLT God hates me and angrily tears me apart. He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes.
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 describes God as an adversary who has torn him in wrath and fixed a hostile gaze on him. He feels assaulted by the One he serves.
Overview
In vivid imagery Job pictures God tearing, gnashing, and sharpening his eyes against him like an enemy. This is the agonized language of a man who cannot reconcile God's apparent hostility with his own innocence. Such raw lament, voiced honestly to God, is permitted in Scripture and finds its deepest echo in Christ's cry of forsakenness (Mark 15:34).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Lam 2:16All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”
- Ps 35:16Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.
- Job 13:24Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy?
- Job 19:11His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.
- Hos 6:1Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Ps 37:12The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them,
- Job 10:16–17Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
- Job 18:4You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
- Acts 7:54On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.
- Job 13:27You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet.
- Lam 3:10He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
- Mic 7:8Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- Hos 5:14For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.
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 16:9 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.