For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully?
Parallel translations
- WEB God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
- KJV He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
- BSB God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?
- NKJV God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?
- NASB “Wise in heart and mighty in strength, Who has defied Him without harm?
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 describes God as supremely wise and mighty, and asks who has ever defied him and come out unscathed. None can successfully resist God.
Overview
Job extols God's wisdom and power, noting that no one who hardens himself against God prospers. The rhetorical question underscores the futility of human resistance to the Almighty. This high view of God's sovereignty frames Job's struggle: he must reckon with a God too great to be challenged on equal terms.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 24
- Job 36:5“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
- Rom 11:33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- Eph 3:20Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
- Exod 14:17–18Behold, I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall go in after them: and I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.
- Job 9:19If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
- Prov 29:1He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.
- Eph 3:10to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places,
- Jude 1:24–25Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
- Dan 5:20–30But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
- Exod 9:14–17For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart, against your officials, and against your people; that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
- Dan 4:34–37At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.
- 2 Chr 13:12Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. Children of Israel, don’t fight against Yahweh, the God of your fathers; for you will not prosper.”
- Job 15:23–27He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
- Eph 1:19and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
- Job 40:9Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
- 1 Cor 10:22Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
- Job 6:10Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
- Eph 1:8which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
- Job 11:6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Prov 28:14Blessed is the man who always fears; but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.
- Dan 2:20Daniel answered, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his.
- Ps 104:24Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
- Job 12:13“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
- Ps 136:5To him who by understanding made the heavens; for his loving kindness endures forever:
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 9:4 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
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