Surely all of you have seen it for yourselves. Why then do you keep up this empty talk?
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
- KJV Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain?
- NKJV Surely all of you have seen it; Why then do you behave with complete nonsense?
- NASB “Behold, all of you have seen it; Why then do you talk of nothing?
- NLT But you have seen all this, yet you say all these useless things to me.
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 notes his friends have themselves seen the truth, so why speak emptily. It matters because he charges them with talking vain nonsense against the evidence.
Overview
Job points out that his friends have witnessed reality for themselves, yet they have become utterly vain in their speech. They argue against what their own eyes confirm. The rebuke exposes how rigid theology can blind people to truth, a danger Christ also confronted in those who held tradition over honest sight.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 16:3Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?
- Job 19:2–3“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
- Job 21:3Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
- Eccl 9:1–3So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.
- Job 13:4–9You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
- Job 26:2–4“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
- Job 6:25–29How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
- Eccl 8:14There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.
- Job 21:28–30For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
- Job 17:2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
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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 27:12 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.