Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
- KJV Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
- NKJV Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?
- NASB “Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, Or given understanding to the mind?
- NLT Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?
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
Who placed wisdom within and gave understanding to the mind? Even human insight is a gift from God.
Overview
The LORD asks the source of the wisdom and understanding found in people. The implied answer is that God himself bestows them. This humbles Job by reminding him that the very faculties he uses to argue are God's gift, dependent on the Giver.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 32:8But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
- Ps 51:6Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
- Eccl 2:26To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Prov 2:6For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
- Jas 1:5Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
- Exod 31:3And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship,
- Job 9:4God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?
- Jas 1:17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
- Isa 28:26For his God instructs and teaches him properly.
- Exod 36:1–2“So Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled person are to carry out everything commanded by the LORD, who has given them skill and ability to know how to perform all the work of constructing the sanctuary.”
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 38:36 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.