Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, And array yourself with glory and beauty.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.
- KJV Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
- BSB Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and glory.
- 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 93:1Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved.
- Ps 149:4For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation.
- Isa 59:17He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
- Job 39:19“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
- 1 Cor 15:54But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
- Ps 90:16–17Let your work appear to your servants; your glory to their children.
- Ps 50:2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
- Ps 104:1–2Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.
- Ps 45:3–4Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one: your splendor and your majesty.
- Ps 21:5His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and majesty on him.
- Matt 6:13Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
- 2 Pet 1:16–17For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
- Exod 28:2You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.
- Jude 1:24–25Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
- 1 Chr 29:11Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all.
- Isa 4:2In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors 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.