Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
Parallel translations
- KJV Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
- 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 breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
- Ps 51:6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
- Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Prov 2:6For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
- Jas 1:5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
- Exod 31:3and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship,
- Job 9:4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
- Jas 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
- Isa 28:26For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.
- Exod 36:1–2“Bezalel and Oholiab shall work with every wise-hearted man, in whom Yahweh has put wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that Yahweh has commanded.”
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.