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“If indeed you exalt yourselves against me And prove my disgrace to me,
Job 19:5 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach;
  • KJV If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
  • BSB If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,
  • NKJV If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, And plead my disgrace against me,
  • NLT You think you’re better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.

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 challenges the friends who exalt themselves over him and use his disgrace as an argument against him. He calls out their proud condemnation.

Overview

Job exposes the friends' self-righteous posture, magnifying themselves while pressing his humiliation as proof of guilt. He sees their reasoning as built on his shame rather than on truth. This sets up his crucial point in the next verse: that his calamity comes from God's mysterious hand, not from the simple wickedness they allege.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 14

  • Ps 35:26Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.
  • Ps 55:12For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him.
  • Ps 38:16For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
  • Luke 13:2–4Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things?
  • Mic 7:8Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
  • Neh 1:3They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
  • Luke 1:25“Thus has the Lord done to me in the days in which he looked at me, to take away my reproach among men.”
  • 1 Sam 1:6Her rival provoked her severely, to irritate her, because Yahweh had shut up her womb.
  • Zeph 2:10This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of Armies.
  • Isa 4:1Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.”
  • Zech 12:7Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah.
  • Ps 41:11By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.
  • John 9:34They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” They threw him out.
  • John 9:2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 19:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 19:5 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.