though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—
Parallel translations
- WEB (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her I have guided from my mother’s womb);
- KJV (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)
- NKJV (But from my youth I reared him as a father, And from my mother’s womb I guided the widow);
- NASB (But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, And from my infancy I guided her),
- NLT No, from childhood I have cared for orphans like a father, and all my life I have cared for widows.
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 explains that from his youth he raised the orphan as a father and guided the widow. His care for the vulnerable was a lifelong practice.
Overview
Job clarifies that his compassion was not occasional but a habit from his earliest years, nurturing the fatherless as a father and guiding the widow. This long pattern of mercy underscores the genuineness of his righteousness. His fatherly care for those without protection mirrors the gospel reality that God adopts the helpless as his children through Christ, the elder brother who cares for his own.
Cross-references & the web
No cross-references recorded for this verse.
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 31:18 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.