Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.
- BSB Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and glory.
- NKJV Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, And array yourself with glory and beauty.
- NASB ¶“Adorn yourself with pride and dignity, And clothe yourself with honor and majesty.
- NLT All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty.
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 ironically invites Job to clothe himself with majesty and glory, as if he could rule like God. The challenge exposes that such splendor belongs to God alone.
Overview
In a tone of holy irony, God dares Job to array himself in the excellency, dignity, and majesty that befit the divine ruler. The point is that Job cannot wear what is God's alone. If Job would judge the world, he must first possess God's own glory and might. The passage humbles Job's pretensions and magnifies the unique majesty of the Lord who governs all.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 93:1The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.
- Ps 149:4For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
- Isa 59:17For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
- Job 39:19Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
- 1 Cor 15:54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
- Ps 90:16–17Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
- Ps 50:2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
- Ps 104:1–2Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
- Ps 45:3–4Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.
- Ps 21:5His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
- Matt 6:13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
- 2 Pet 1:16–17For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
- Exod 28:2And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
- Jude 1:24–25Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
- 1 Chr 29:11Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
- Isa 4:2In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 40:10 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.