Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
Parallel translations
- KJV He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
- BSB Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.
- NKJV “But God draws the mighty away with His power; He rises up, but no man is sure of life.
- NASB “But He drags off the mighty by His power; He rises, but no one has assurance of life.
- NLT “God, in his power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.
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
Yet God by His power sustains the mighty, who rise though they had no certainty of life. It matters because Job grapples with why the powerful wicked endure.
Overview
Job observes that God's power even preserves the mighty, raising up those who had no assurance they would live. The verse can be read as Job's puzzled acknowledgment that God sometimes prolongs the strong, including evildoers. This tension between present prosperity and eventual judgment runs throughout the book and is resolved only in God's final reckoning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Dan 6:4–9Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault, because he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
- John 19:12–16At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”
- Esth 3:8–10Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain.
- Rev 16:13–14I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, something like frogs;
- Rev 17:2with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 24:22 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.