If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,
Parallel translations
- WEB “If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’
- KJV If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
- NKJV “IfI have made gold my hope, Or said to fine gold, ‘You are my confidence’;
- NASB ¶“If I have put my confidence in gold, And called fine gold my trust,
- NLT “Have I put my trust in money or felt secure because of my gold?
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 swears he never made gold his hope or called fine gold his confidence. He affirms that wealth was not his trust.
Overview
Job denies placing his security and hope in riches, refusing to treat gold as the ground of his confidence. This guards against the idolatry of wealth that Scripture repeatedly warns against. Jesus teaches that one cannot serve both God and money, so Job's refusal to trust riches anticipates the gospel call to lay up treasure in heaven and to trust God alone, who supplies all our needs in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Deut 8:12–14Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell,
- Prov 11:28He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.
- Ps 49:6–7They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Ps 52:7“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”
- Ps 49:17For when he dies, he will carry nothing away; his abundance will not follow him down.
- Prov 10:15The wealth of the rich man is his fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor.
- Prov 30:9Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.
- 1 Tim 6:10For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
- 1 Tim 6:17Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.
- Luke 12:15And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
- Ps 62:10Place no trust in extortion, or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
- Gen 31:1Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
- Col 3:5Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
- Mark 10:24–25And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
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 31:24 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.