Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And 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?
- BSB Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, 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 walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
- Lam 3:7He has walled me about, that I can’t go out; he has made my chain heavy.
- Isa 40:27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
- Ps 88:8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
- Hos 2:6Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.
- Job 19:12His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.
- Lam 3:9He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
- Job 12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
- Ps 31:8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
- Job 19:6know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 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.