You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you shall not exalt them.
- KJV For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
- NKJV For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.
- NASB “For You have kept their hearts away from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.
- NLT You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph.
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 says God has closed his friends' minds to understanding, so they will not prevail. He sees their failure as part of God's working.
Overview
Job observes that his friends lack true insight because God has hidden it from their hearts, and so they will not triumph in the dispute. He recognizes God's sovereign hand even over their blindness. The verse reminds us that genuine understanding is God's gift (Proverbs 2:6), and that human wisdom apart from him cannot rightly judge the deep things of his providence.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Matt 11:25At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
- Matt 13:11He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
- 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?
- 2 Sam 17:14Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had purposed to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.
- Rom 11:8as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”
- Isa 19:14The LORD has poured into her a spirit of confusion. Egypt has been led astray in all she does, as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.
- 2 Chr 25:16While he was still speaking, the king asked, “Have we made you the counselor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?” So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”
- 2 Sam 15:31Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”
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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 17:4 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.