How you have counseled the unwise and provided fully sound insight!
Parallel translations
- WEB How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
- KJV How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
- NKJV How have you counseled one who has no wisdom? And how have you declared sound advice to many?
- NASB “What advice you have given to one without wisdom! What helpful insight you have abundantly provided!
- NLT How you have enlightened my stupidity! What wise advice you have offered!
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 mocks the great wisdom and knowledge Bildad supposedly shared. It matters because it underscores that the friends added nothing new.
Overview
Job continues his ironic rebuke, asking how Bildad has counseled the unwise and abundantly declared sound knowledge. In truth Bildad merely repeated familiar platitudes. Job's words expose the difference between hollow advice and the genuine wisdom that comes from God, ultimately revealed in Christ, the wisdom of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 15:8–10Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?
- Ps 49:1–4For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all inhabitants of the world,
- Job 17:10But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
- Job 12:3But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
- Job 33:3My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.
- Job 13:5If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!
- Acts 20:20I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house,
- Ps 71:15–18My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure.
- Job 32:11–13Indeed, I waited while you spoke; I listened to your reasoning; as you searched for words,
- Acts 20:27For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.
- Job 33:33But if not, then listen to me; be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.”
- Prov 8:6–9Listen, for I speak of noble things, and the opening of my lips will reveal right.
- Job 38:2“Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?
- Job 6:13Is there any help within me now that success is driven from me?
Resources, by level
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 26:3 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.