“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Parallel translations
- KJV Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
- BSB I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,
- NKJV “Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
- NASB ¶“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were recorded in a book!
- NLT “Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,
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 wishes his words could be permanently written and inscribed in a book. He longs for a lasting record of his testimony.
Overview
Sensing the weight of what he is about to declare, Job yearns for his words to be preserved forever. This desire introduces his great confession of the Redeemer, which he wants remembered beyond his lifetime. Strikingly, God granted the wish, preserving Job's testimony in Scripture for all generations to read and be comforted.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Isa 30:8Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
- Isa 8:1Yahweh said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen, ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz’;
- Job 31:35oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!
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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 19:23 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.