If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
Parallel translations
- KJV If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
- BSB If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to 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 Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy.
- Judg 6:13Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
- Ps 18:6In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
- Ps 126:1A Song of Ascents. When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, we were like those who dream.
- Luke 24:41While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
- Job 29:24I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.
- Exod 6:9Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn’t listen to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
- Ps 66:18–20If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.
- Acts 12:14–16When she recognized Peter’s voice, she didn’t open the gate for joy, but ran in, and reported that Peter was standing in front of 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.