He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands cannot carry out their plans.
Parallel translations
- WEB He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.
- KJV He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
- BSB He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
- NASB “He frustrates the schemes of the shrewd, So that their hands cannot attain success.
- NLT He frustrates the plans of schemers so the work of their hands will not succeed.
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 frustrates the schemes of the crafty so their hands accomplish nothing. It affirms that he overrules and defeats human cunning.
Overview
Eliphaz celebrates God's power to thwart the plots of the clever, leaving their plans unfulfilled. The truth that God overturns the designs of the wicked runs throughout Scripture. Supremely, the cross shows it, for the schemes of those who crucified Christ were turned by God into the very means of salvation, demonstrating how he frustrates evil counsel for his redemptive purpose.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 21:11For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
- Ps 33:10–11Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.
- Isa 8:10Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand: for God is with us.”
- Prov 21:30There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Yahweh.
- Ps 37:17For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous.
- Acts 12:11When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”
- Isa 37:36Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
- Neh 4:15When our enemies heard that it was known to us, and God had brought their counsel to nothing, all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work.
- Job 12:16–17With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
- Acts 23:12–22When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.
- Isa 19:3The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.
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 5:12 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.