Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?
Parallel translations
- WEB You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
- KJV And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
- NKJV And you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness?
- NASB “But you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the thick darkness?
- NLT But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing! How can he judge through the thick darkness?
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
Eliphaz puts words in Job's mouth, claiming Job believes God cannot see or judge through the thick darkness. He accuses Job of practical atheism.
Overview
Eliphaz misrepresents Job as denying God's awareness of human affairs, suggesting Job thinks the clouds hide his deeds from God. This caricatures Job, who has consistently affirmed God's intimate knowledge of him (Job 23:10). The accusation echoes the real error of the wicked (Ps 73:11), but it is unjustly applied to Job, distorting his actual faith.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ezek 8:12“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
- Ps 10:11He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
- Ezek 9:9He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’
- Ps 73:11The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”
- Isa 29:15Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- Ps 59:7See what they spew from their mouths—sharp words from their lips: “For who can hear us?”
- Ps 94:7–9They say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed.”
- Ps 64:5They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. “Who will see them?” they say.
- Zeph 1:12And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
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 22:13 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.