I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
Parallel translations
- KJV I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
- BSB I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
- NKJV I would present my case before Him, And fill my mouth with arguments.
- NASB “I would present my case before Him And fill my mouth with arguments.
- NLT I would lay out my case and present my arguments.
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 imagines laying out his case before God in an orderly way, filling his mouth with arguments. He longs for a fair hearing of his innocence.
Overview
Job pictures himself as a litigant carefully presenting his defense before God. He is confident that, given a hearing, his integrity would be evident. This reflects not arrogance but a sufferer's craving for vindication. It also points to humanity's need for a mediator between God and man, ultimately met in Christ (1 Tim 2:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 13:18See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.
- Dan 9:18–19My God, turn your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
- Ps 25:11For your name’s sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
- Num 14:13–19Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them.
- Josh 7:8–9Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies!
- Exod 32:12–13Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.
- Ps 43:1Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
- Gen 32:12You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’”
- Job 37:19Teach us what we shall tell him, for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.
- Gen 18:25–32Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
- Isa 43:26Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified.
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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 23:4 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.