I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.
Parallel translations
- WEB I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.
- BSB I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
- NKJV “I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You regard me.
- NASB “I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.
- NLT “I cry to you, O God, but you don’t answer. I stand before you, but you don’t even look.
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 cries to God but receives no answer, standing before a God who seems only to stare at him. It voices the agony of unanswered prayer and divine silence.
Overview
Here Job's lament reaches the painful theme of God's apparent unresponsiveness; he prays and stands, yet heaven seems silent and merely watchful. This is one of the deepest trials of faith, when God seems distant in the midst of suffering. Job's experience anticipates the cry of Christ on the cross, 'Why have you forsaken me?', through which believers are assured that God is never truly absent even when he seems silent.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 19:7Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
- Ps 22:2O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
- Ps 80:4–5O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
- Lam 3:8Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
- Lam 3:44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
- Job 27:9Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?
- Matt 15:23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
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 30:20 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.