My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.
Parallel translations
- WEB I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
- KJV I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
- NKJV “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.
- NASB “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You;
- NLT I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
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
Job says he had only heard of God by report, but now his eye sees Him. Encountering God personally transforms his whole understanding.
Overview
Job contrasts secondhand knowledge with direct, personal encounter with the living God. Though he had been a righteous man all along, this fresh sight of God's majesty deepens his faith beyond mere hearsay. It pictures the difference between knowing about God and truly knowing Him, a knowledge brought to fullness in Christ, who makes the unseen God known (John 1:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Eph 1:17–18that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.
- Rom 10:17Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
- John 12:45And whoever sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
- Isa 6:5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- John 12:41Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.
- Isa 6:1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple.
- Job 26:14Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”
- Num 12:6–8He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream.
- Job 4:12Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
- John 1:18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
- Job 23:8–9If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.
- Job 33:16He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings
- Job 28:22Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor about it.’
- Acts 7:55–56But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 42:5 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.