Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?
Parallel translations
- KJV Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?
- BSB Will they not teach you and tell you, and speak from their understanding?
- 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 gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
- Matt 12:35The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
- Deut 11:19You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
- Ps 145:4One generation will commend your works to another, and will declare your mighty acts.
- Job 12:7–8“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
- Job 32:7I said, ‘Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’
- Heb 12:1Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
- Deut 6:7and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
- Heb 11:4By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
- Prov 16:23The heart of the wise instructs his mouth, and adds learning 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.