Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
Parallel translations
- WEB As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
- KJV As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
- NKJV “As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient?
- NASB “As for me, is my complaint to a mortal? Or why should I not be impatient?
- NLT “My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient.
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 says his complaint is not against man but God, which is why his impatience is justified. His real struggle is with God, not merely his friends.
Overview
Job clarifies that his anguished complaint is ultimately directed toward God, not his human accusers, which explains the depth of his distress and impatience. His honesty shows that he wrestles with the Almighty himself over his suffering. Such candid struggle, brought directly to God, models a faith that does not flee from God in pain but presses toward him for answers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 142:2–3I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.
- Ps 102:1A prayer of one who is afflicted, when he grows faint and pours out his lament before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come before You.
- Ps 42:11Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
- Job 6:11What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?
- Ps 77:3–9I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah
- Matt 26:38Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”
- Job 7:11–21Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Exod 6:9Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.
- Job 10:1–2“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- 1 Sam 1:16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”
- Ps 22:1–3For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
- 2 Kgs 6:26–27As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
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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 21:4 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.