“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
Parallel translations
- WEB “How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
- KJV How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
- NKJV “How have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength?
- NASB “What a help you are to the weak! You have saved the arm without strength!
- NLT “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the weak!
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 sarcastically thanks Bildad for how greatly he has helped the powerless. It matters because Job exposes the emptiness of his friends' counsel.
Overview
With biting irony, Job asks how Bildad has helped one without power or saved the weak arm. The friends have offered no real comfort to a man in his weakness. The sarcasm reveals Job's frustration with counsel that crushes rather than restores, in contrast to the true Comforter God provides.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 4:3–4Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
- Isa 35:3–4Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!
- Job 6:12Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?
- 1 Kgs 18:27At noon Elijah began to taunt them, saying, “Shout louder, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or occupied, or on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened!”
- Job 16:4–5I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Isa 41:5–7The islands see and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward.
- Job 6:25How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
- Ps 71:9Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
- Job 12:2“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!
- Isa 40:14Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding?
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 26:2 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.