How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?
Parallel translations
- WEB How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?
- BSB How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
- NKJV How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove?
- NASB “How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
- NLT Honest words can be painful, but what do your criticisms amount to?
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
Honest words are forcible, but Job asks what their reproof actually proves. He concedes that true rebuke has power, yet theirs lacks substance.
Overview
Job admits that upright, truthful words carry weight, but their criticism of him establishes nothing real. He distinguishes between honest argument and empty accusation. The verse honors the power of true speech while exposing the emptiness of unfounded blame, a reminder that rebuke must be grounded in truth and love, as in the word of Christ, who speaks the truth that genuinely convicts and heals.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 16:21–24The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.
- Job 4:4Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
- Job 24:25And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
- Prov 25:11A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
- Job 13:5O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
- Job 16:3–5Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
- Prov 18:21Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
- Job 21:34How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
- Prov 12:18There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
- Job 32:3Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
- Eccl 12:10–11The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
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 6:25 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
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