For God created both me and my servants. He created us both in the womb.
Parallel translations
- WEB Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
- KJV Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?
- BSB Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?
- NKJV Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?
- NASB “Did He who made me in the womb not make him, And the same One create us in the womb?
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 grounds the dignity of his servants in their shared creation: the same God formed both master and servant in the womb. It is a profound affirmation of human equality.
Overview
Job appeals to the truth that the Creator who fashioned him in the womb also fashioned his servants, so both share a common origin and worth. This conviction undercuts any claim to superiority based on social rank. The verse anticipates the biblical doctrine that all people bear God's image, a truth fully honored in the gospel, where Christ unites people of every status into one redeemed family.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 14:31He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.
- Job 34:19Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.
- Prov 22:2The rich and the poor have this in common: Yahweh is the maker of them all.
- Mal 2:10Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
- Job 10:8–12“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
- Neh 5:5Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
- Isa 58:7Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Ps 139:14–16I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
- Job 10:3Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
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 31:15 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.