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For He crushes me with a tempest, And multiplies my wounds without cause.
Job 9:17 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
  • KJV For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
  • BSB For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.
  • NASB “For He bruises me with a storm And multiplies my wounds without cause.
  • NLT For he attacks me with a storm and repeatedly wounds me without cause.

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 complains that God crushes him with a storm and multiplies his wounds without cause. He feels struck down for no reason he can see.

Overview

Job describes God as overwhelming him like a tempest, adding wound upon wound. The phrase 'without cause' echoes the narrator's and God's own assessment that Job is afflicted without cause (Job 2:3). Job senses a truth he cannot fully grasp: his suffering is not deserved punishment, a key to the book's message.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 20

  • Job 16:14He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.
  • Job 2:3Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”
  • Job 34:6Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’
  • Job 1:14–19that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,
  • Jer 23:19Behold, Yahweh’s storm, his wrath, has gone out. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked.
  • Job 2:7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
  • Job 30:22You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.
  • Ps 83:15so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.
  • John 15:25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
  • Ezek 13:13“‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath. There shall be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it.
  • Job 2:13So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
  • Isa 28:17I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
  • Ps 29:5Yahweh’s voice breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
  • Matt 7:27The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”
  • Ps 25:3Yes, no one who waits for you shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.
  • Matt 12:20He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory.
  • Job 16:12I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.
  • Job 16:17Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
  • Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
  • John 9:3Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 9:17YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 9:17 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.