“For the ear tests words As the palate tastes food.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes food.
- KJV For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.
- BSB For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.
- NKJV For the ear tests words As the palate tastes food.
- NLT Job said, ‘The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.’
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
No one else may approach the mountain, not even the flocks. God's holiness sets strict boundaries around His presence.
Overview
As at the first giving of the law, the mountain is set apart and access restricted. This guards the holiness of God's meeting with Moses. The restriction emphasizes that drawing near to a holy God is no casual matter and requires God's appointed mediator, a need fully met in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Job 12:11Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
- 1 Cor 2:15But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.
- Heb 5:14But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
- Job 33:2See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken in my mouth.
- Job 31:30(yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);
- Job 6:30Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?
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 34:3 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.