But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
Parallel translations
- WEB But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.
- KJV But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
- NKJV “But please, come back again, all of you, For I shall not find one wise man among you.
- NASB “But come again all of you now, For I do not find a wise man among you.
- NLT “As for all of you, come back with a better argument, though I still won’t find a wise man among you.
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 challenges his friends to come again, for he finds no wise man among them. He dismisses their counsel as lacking wisdom.
Overview
Job invites the friends to renew their arguments, confident none of them possesses real wisdom for his case. His verdict exposes the emptiness of their supposedly traditional insight. This rebuke warns against confident counsel that lacks true understanding, and points to the need for wisdom from above (James 3:17) rather than mere human reasoning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 42:7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.
- Job 6:29Reconsider; do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my righteousness is at stake.
- Mal 3:18So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
- 1 Cor 1:20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
- Job 12:2“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!
- 1 Cor 6:5I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?
- Job 32:9It is not only the old who are wise, or the elderly who understand justice.
- Job 17:4You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
- Job 15:9What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not clear to 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 17:10 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.