But ask those who have been around, and they will tell you the truth.
Parallel translations
- WEB Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,
- KJV Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,
- BSB Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?
- NKJV Have you not asked those who travel the road? And do you not know their signs?
- NASB “Have you not asked travelers, And do you not examine their evidence?
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 tells the friends to ask any traveler, who could give them plain evidence to the contrary. Common observation refutes their neat theology.
Overview
Job appeals to the testimony of those who have traveled widely and seen the world. Such witnesses would confirm that the wicked are not uniformly destroyed. Job grounds his argument in shared human experience, calling his friends to honest observation rather than rigid doctrine that ignores the facts of life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 1
- Ps 129:8Neither do those who go by say, “The blessing of Yahweh be on you. We bless you in Yahweh’s name.”
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 21:29 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
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