Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
- BSB Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?
- 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 man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
- Ps 51:6Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
- Eccl 2:26For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Prov 2:6For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
- Jas 1:5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
- Exod 31:3And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
- Job 9:4He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
- Jas 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
- Isa 28:26For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
- Exod 36:1–2Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.
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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 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.