Can His troops be numbered? On whom does His light not rise?
Parallel translations
- WEB Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?
- KJV Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?
- NKJV Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise?
- NASB “Is there any number to His troops? And upon whom does His light not rise?
- NLT Who is able to count his heavenly army? Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth?
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
Bildad asks who can number God's armies or escape His light. It matters because it stresses God's limitless power and presence.
Overview
Bildad points to the countless hosts of heaven and the universal reach of God's light. No one lies beyond His power or sight. While the affirmation is sound, Bildad wields it to argue that no man, including Job, can stand before such a God, a point Job already knows and feels deeply.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jas 1:17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
- Matt 5:45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
- John 1:4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
- Dan 7:10A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, and myriads upon myriads stood before Him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.
- Ps 103:20–21Bless the LORD, all His angels mighty in strength who carry out His word, who hearken to the voice of His command.
- Job 38:12–13In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
- Isa 40:26Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
- Ps 19:4–6their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.
- Rev 5:11Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels and living creatures and elders encircling the throne, and their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.
- Gen 1:14–16And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years.
- John 1:9The true Light who gives light to every man was coming into the world.
- Gen 1:3–5And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
- Ps 148:2–4Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.
- Matt 26:53Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 25:3 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.