Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
Parallel translations
- WEB They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
- BSB Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your 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 22:17Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
- Rom 8:7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
- Ps 10:4The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
- 2 Th 2:10–12And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
- Prov 1:29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
- John 3:19–20And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
- John 15:23–24He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
- 2 Tim 4:3–4For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
- Prov 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- Rom 1:28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
- Luke 8:28When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
- Hab 1:15They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
- Prov 1:22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
- Luke 8:37Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.
- John 8:45–47And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
- Ps 10:11He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
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.