“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
Parallel translations
- KJV Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!
- BSB “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.
- NKJV “Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, And my calamity laid with it on the scales!
- NASB “Oh if only my grief were actually weighed And laid in the balances together with my disaster!
- NLT “If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales,
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 wishes his anguish could be weighed on scales against his calamity. He longs for his suffering to be truly measured and acknowledged.
Overview
Job opens by asking that his grief and disaster be set in the balances, that their true weight be seen. He feels his friends have underestimated his pain. This plea to be understood reflects a deep human longing in suffering, one that God himself honors, for he sympathizes with our weaknesses through Christ, who fully knows the weight of human sorrow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
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 6:2 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.