For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you shall not exalt them.
- BSB You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will 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 answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
- Matt 13:11He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
- 1 Cor 1:20Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
- 2 Sam 17:14And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.
- Rom 11:8(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
- Isa 19:14The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
- 2 Chr 25:16And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king’s counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel.
- 2 Sam 15:31And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O LORD, I pray thee, 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.