He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
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.
- BSB His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
- 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 thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
- Ps 35:16With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
- Job 13:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
- Job 19:11He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
- Hos 6:1Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
- Ps 37:12The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
- Job 10:16–17For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
- Job 18:4He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
- Acts 7:54When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
- Job 13:27Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
- Lam 3:10He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
- Mic 7:8Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
- Hos 5:14For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 16:9 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.