For God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices.
Parallel translations
- WEB For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention.
- KJV For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
- NKJV For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it.
- NASB “Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it.
- NLT For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.
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
God answers, 'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.' The promise of God's own presence is the heart of the assurance Moses sought.
Overview
God grants the very thing in question: His personal presence will accompany Israel. The promise of 'rest' anticipates the settled life in the land and, more deeply, the rest found in God Himself. This points forward to Christ, who offers rest to all who come to Him (Matthew 11:28) and to the eternal Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 1:24Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,
- 2 Chr 33:10And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.
- Ps 62:11God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,
- Job 33:29Behold, all these things God does to a man, two or even three times,
- Luke 24:25Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
- John 3:19And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
- Isa 6:9And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
- Matt 13:14In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
- Prov 1:29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
- Mark 8:17–18Aware of their conversation, Jesus asked them, “Why are you debating about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Do you have such hard hearts?
- Job 40:5I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”
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 33:14 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.