You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
Parallel translations
- WEB You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
- KJV He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
- NKJV You who tear yourself in anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed from its place?
- NASB “You who tear yourself in your anger— Should the earth be abandoned for your sake, Or the rock moved from its place?
- NLT You may tear out your hair in anger, but will that destroy the earth? Will it make the rocks tremble?
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
Bildad accuses Job of tearing himself in anger and asks if the world should bend to his complaint. He charges Job with self-destructive pride.
Overview
Bildad pictures Job as raging against himself and implies that Job's protest would require the moral order of the universe to be overturned for his sake. He defends the fixed law of retribution as unshakable as the rocks. Yet the book reveals that God's ways are larger than such rigid formulas, and that the sufferer's anguish is not mere self-willed rebellion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 14:18But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place,
- Job 16:9His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
- Job 5:2For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
- Job 13:14Why do I put myself at risk and take my life in my own hands?
- Job 40:8Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
- Matt 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
- Isa 54:10Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
- Mark 9:18Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.”
- Ezek 9:9He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’
- Luke 9:39A spirit keeps seizing him, and he screams abruptly. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It keeps mauling him and rarely departs from him.
- Jonah 4:9Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 18:4 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.