How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?
Parallel translations
- KJV How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing 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. Pleasantness of the lips promotes instruction.
- Job 4:4Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.
- Job 24:25If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”
- Prov 25:11A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
- Job 13:5Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.
- Job 16:3–5Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
- Prov 18:21Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
- Job 21:34So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”
- Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Job 32:3Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, 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 blamelessly, words of truth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 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
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.