Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
Parallel translations
- WEB He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
- BSB He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble.
- NKJV He shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble;
- NASB “It is He who shakes the earth from its place, And its pillars tremble;
- NLT He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble.
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 God shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. Even the foundations of the world are subject to him.
Overview
Continuing his praise of God's power, Job pictures God shaking the very earth and its supporting pillars. The ancient imagery portrays God as sovereign over the cosmos he made. Job's point is that the One he longs to question controls all things, making any human challenge seem impossible.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Heb 12:26Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
- Ps 75:3The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
- Hag 2:6For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
- Job 26:11The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.
- Isa 2:21To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
- Job 38:4–7Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
- Isa 2:19And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
- Ps 114:7Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;
- Isa 13:13–14Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
- Hag 2:21Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;
- Rev 20:11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
- Isa 24:1Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
- 1 Sam 2:8He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.
- Joel 2:10The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
- Jer 4:24I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
- Isa 24:19–20The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 9:6 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.