How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
Parallel translations
- WEB How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
- BSB How you have counseled the unwise and provided fully sound insight!
- 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 15:8–10Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
- Ps 49:1–4Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
- Job 17:10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
- Job 12:3But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
- Job 33:3My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
- Job 13:5O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
- Acts 20:20And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
- Ps 71:15–18My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.
- Job 32:11–13Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say.
- Acts 20:27For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
- Job 33:33If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom.
- Prov 8:6–9Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
- Job 38:2Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
- Job 6:13Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite 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.