You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph.
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.
- 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.
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, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
- Matt 13:11He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.
- 1 Cor 1:20Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
- 2 Sam 17:14Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.
- Rom 11:8According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
- Isa 19:14Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
- 2 Chr 25:16As he talked with him, the king said to him, “Have we made you one of the king’s counselors? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped, and said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my counsel.”
- 2 Sam 15:31Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 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.