Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
Parallel translations
- WEB They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
- KJV Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
- NKJV Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
- NASB “Yet they say to God, ‘Go away from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways.
- NLT And yet they say to God, ‘Go away. We want no part of you and your ways.
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
The wicked tell God to leave them alone because they have no desire to know His ways. Their prosperity goes hand in hand with willful rejection of God.
Overview
Job exposes the inner attitude of the prosperous wicked: they actively push God away, wanting nothing to do with His commands. This is the essence of sin, a desire for autonomy from the Creator (cf. Rom 1:28). Their material success masks deep spiritual poverty, which only deepens the tragedy of their condition.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Job 22:17They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’
- Rom 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- Ps 10:4In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God.
- 2 Th 2:10–12and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- Prov 1:29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
- John 3:19–20And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
- John 15:23–24Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.
- 2 Tim 4:3–4For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.
- Prov 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
- Rom 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Luke 8:28When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You not to torture me!”
- Hab 1:15The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.
- Prov 1:22“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Luke 8:37Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them, because great fear had taken hold of them. So He got into the boat and started back.
- John 8:45–47But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!
- Ps 10:11He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 21:14 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.