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He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger.
Job 9:5 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.
  • KJV Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.
  • NKJV He removes the mountains, and they do not know When He overturns them in His anger;
  • NASB “It is God who removes the mountains, and they do not know how, When He overturns them in His anger.
  • NLT “Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger.

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 marvels that God moves mountains in his anger before they even know it. God's power over creation is overwhelming and irresistible.

Overview

Job begins a hymn-like list of God's mighty works, starting with his ability to overturn mountains without warning. The imagery conveys God's effortless sovereignty over the most immovable parts of creation. Such reflection deepens Job's awe and his sense of helplessness before so powerful a God.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 17

  • Matt 27:51At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.
  • Luke 21:11There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
  • Rev 11:13And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
  • Rev 16:18–20And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and a great earthquake the likes of which had not occurred since men were upon the earth—so mighty was the great quake.
  • Hab 3:10The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high.
  • Ps 68:8the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
  • Hab 3:6He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains crumbled; the perpetual hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.
  • Rev 6:14The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.
  • Matt 21:21“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
  • 1 Cor 13:2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
  • Isa 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?
  • Ps 46:2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas,
  • Job 28:9The miner strikes the flint; he overturns mountains at their base.
  • Zech 4:7What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
  • Ps 114:6O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?
  • Zech 14:4–5On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south.
  • Num 1:5–6These are the names of the men who are to assist you: From the tribe of Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

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 9:5YouTube · 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 9:5 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.