Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
Parallel translations
- WEB Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?
- BSB Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair?
- NKJV Do you intend to rebuke my words, And the speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind?
- NASB “Do you intend to rebuke my words, When the words of one in despair belong to the wind?
- NLT Do you think your words are convincing when you disregard my cry of desperation?
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 asks if they mean to correct mere words, treating the speech of a desperate man as wind. He protests that they seize on his anguished words rather than help him.
Overview
Job objects that his friends are nitpicking the words of a man in despair, as though such words were weighty doctrine rather than the gusts of pain. He pleads for mercy toward speech wrung out by suffering. This calls for gentleness with the grieving, the same tenderness Christ shows in not breaking the bruised reed or quenching the smoldering wick of a hurting soul.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Job 8:2How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
- Matt 12:37For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
- Eph 4:14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
- Job 10:1My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 42:3Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
- Job 4:3–4Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
- Job 2:10But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
- Job 34:3–9For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.
- Hos 12:1Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
- Job 40:5Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
- Job 3:3–26Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
- Job 40:8Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
- Job 42:7And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
- Job 38:2Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
- Job 6:9Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
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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 6:26 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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