And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
Parallel translations
- WEB You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
- BSB Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?
- 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 8:12Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
- Ps 10:11He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
- Ezek 9:9Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
- Ps 73:11And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
- Isa 29:15Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
- Ps 59:7Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?
- Ps 94:7–9Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
- Ps 64:5They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
- Zeph 1:12And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
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
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