Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
- KJV Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?
- NKJV Will God hear his cry When trouble comes upon him?
- NASB “Will God hear his cry When distress comes upon him?
- NLT Will God listen to their cry when trouble comes upon them?
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 asks whether God will hear the godless man's cry in trouble. It matters because it warns that crying out only in crisis brings no help.
Overview
Job questions whether God will heed the godless when distress comes upon him. The implied answer is that the one who ignored God in prosperity has no claim on Him in calamity. This sobering truth calls all to seek the Lord while He may be found, before the day of trouble (Isa. 55:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Jer 14:12Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
- Isa 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
- Prov 1:28Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
- Job 35:12–13There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
- Ps 18:41They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—to the LORD, but He did not answer.
- Mic 3:4Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
- Jas 4:3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
- Zech 7:13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
- Prov 28:9Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.
- Hos 7:14They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.
- Ezek 8:18Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”
- Ps 66:18If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
- Jer 11:11Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to bring upon them a disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to Me, but I will not listen to them.
- Ps 109:7When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayer be regarded as sin.
- John 9:31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will.
- Luke 13:25After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 27:9 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.