Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
Parallel translations
- KJV And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
- BSB “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life.
- NKJV So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
- NASB Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life.
- NLT Satan replied to the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life.
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
Satan retorts that a man will give anything to save his own life. He shifts the accusation to Job's bodily survival.
Overview
The proverb "skin for skin" argues that Job endured loss only because his own person was spared. Satan claims self-preservation, not true devotion, explains Job's faithfulness. The renewed accusation again targets the genuineness of faith, the question Christ would answer by laying down His very life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Phil 3:8–10Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
- Matt 6:25Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
- Matt 16:26For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?
- Jer 41:8But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers.
- Esth 7:3–4Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
- Acts 27:18–19As we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw things overboard.
- Isa 2:20–21In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
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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 2:4 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.