Will they not teach you and tell you, and speak from their understanding?
Parallel translations
- WEB Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?
- KJV Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?
- NKJV Will they not teach you and tell you, And utter words from their heart?
- NASB “Will they not teach you and tell you, And bring forth words from their minds?
- NLT But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you the wisdom of old.
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
Bildad asks whether the wise of old will not instruct Job from their understanding. He commends learning from their reflective words.
Overview
Bildad expects the teaching of past generations to set Job straight. The verse closes his appeal to tradition, presenting ancestral wisdom as speaking 'out of their heart,' from settled understanding. Yet the very mystery Job faces shows that even the best human wisdom needs the light of divine revelation to be complete.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 18:15The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it out.
- Matt 12:35The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.
- Deut 11:19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
- Ps 145:4One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts—
- Job 12:7–8But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.
- Job 32:7I thought that age should speak, and many years should teach wisdom.
- Heb 12:1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.
- Deut 6:7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
- Heb 11:4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous when God gave approval to his gifts. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
- Prov 16:23The heart of the wise man instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
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 8:10 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.