Should God be notified that I want to speak? Can people even speak when they are confused?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
- KJV Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
- BSB Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up?
- NKJV Should He be told that I wish to speak? If a man were to speak, surely he would be swallowed up.
- NASB “Shall it be told Him that I would speak? Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up?
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
Elihu warns that demanding an audience with God to argue one's case would be self-destructive. To challenge the Almighty is to court ruin.
Overview
Elihu questions whether anyone would dare announce a desire to dispute with God, since such presumption could mean being 'swallowed up.' It is a caution against the very lawsuit-with-God that Job had longed for. The verse upholds proper fear of God while leaving room for the LORD's gracious self-disclosure that follows.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Ps 139:4For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
- Matt 12:36–37I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
- Job 11:7–8“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
- Job 6:3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 37:20 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.