“My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so 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?
- BSB Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
- 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?
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 tell him my troubles.
- Ps 102:1A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before Yahweh. Hear my prayer, Yahweh! Let my cry come to you.
- Ps 42:11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
- Job 6:11What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?
- Ps 77:3–9I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.
- Matt 26:38Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
- Job 7:11–21“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Exod 6:9Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn’t listen to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
- Job 10:1–2“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- 1 Sam 1:16Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman; for I have been speaking out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation.”
- Ps 22:1–3For the Chief Musician; set to “The Doe of the Morning.” A Psalm by David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
- 2 Kgs 6:26–27As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O 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.