If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.
Parallel translations
- WEB If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
- KJV If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
- NKJV If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.
- NASB “If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.
- NLT And even if I summoned him and he responded, I’m not sure he would listen to me.
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 says that even if he called and God answered, he could scarcely believe God was truly listening. His sense of distance from God runs deep.
Overview
Job's anguish makes him doubt whether God would really attend to his voice even if he responded. This reflects the despair that suffering can breed, clouding confidence in God's care. The book moves toward dispelling such doubt when God does answer Job directly out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 116:1–2I love the LORD, for He has heard my voice—my appeal for mercy.
- Judg 6:13“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
- Ps 18:6In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.
- Ps 126:1A song of ascents. When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers.
- Luke 24:41While they were still in disbelief because of their joy and amazement, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
- Job 29:24If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.
- Exod 6:9Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.
- Ps 66:18–20If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
- Acts 12:14–16When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the gate, but ran inside and announced, “Peter is standing at the gate!”
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 9:16 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.