How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
Parallel translations
- WEB “How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
- BSB “How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
- 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 4:3–4Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
- Isa 35:3–4Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
- Job 6:12Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
- 1 Kgs 18:27And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
- Job 16:4–5I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
- Isa 41:5–7The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
- Job 6:25How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?
- Ps 71:9Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
- Job 12:2No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
- Isa 40:14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
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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 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.