Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- KJV Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
- NKJV Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?
- NASB “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has shut off?
- NLT Why is life given to those with no future, those God has surrounded with difficulties?
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 feels his way is hidden and that God has hedged him in. The protective hedge of chapter one now feels like a trap.
Overview
Job laments that life is given to a man whose path is obscured and whom God has fenced in. Ironically, the same idea of a hedge that once meant blessing now feels like confinement and frustration. The verse captures how God's dealings can seem bewildering, yet the book affirms that God's purposes, though hidden, are good and wise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Lam 3:7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Isa 40:27Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”?
- Ps 88:8You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
- Hos 2:6Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
- Job 19:12His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
- Lam 3:9He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
- Job 12:14What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.
- Ps 31:8You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- Job 19:6then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 3:23 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.