Limitless Word
What man is like Job, Who drinks scorn like water,
Job 34:7 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,
  • KJV What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?
  • BSB What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water?
  • NASB “What man is like Job, Who drinks up derision like water,
  • NLT “Tell me, has there ever been a man like Job, with his thirst for irreverent talk?

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 keeps steadfast love and forgives sin, yet by no means clears the guilty, visiting iniquity across generations. His mercy and justice are held perfectly together.

Overview

God's character includes both abundant forgiveness and unwavering justice that will not excuse unrepentant guilt. This tension, how God can forgive while remaining just, is the great problem the whole Bible addresses. It is resolved at the cross, where God is shown to be both 'just and the justifier' of those who trust in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 4

  • Job 15:16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
  • Prov 1:22“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
  • Deut 29:19and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.”
  • Prov 4:17For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 34:7YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 34:7 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.