Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
Parallel translations
- WEB Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
- KJV Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
- NKJV Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?
- NASB Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both adversity and good proceed?
- NLT Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?
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
Both calamity and blessing come ultimately from God's sovereign hand.
Overview
The verse affirms that God governs both 'evil' (calamity, adversity) and 'good,' so that nothing falls outside His rule. This is not to make God the author of moral evil, but to assert His total sovereignty over circumstances (Isa. 45:7; Job 2:10). Such truth calls the sufferer to humble submission rather than complaint.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 45:7I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.
- Amos 3:6If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
- Jer 32:42For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I have promised them.
- Job 2:10“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
- Ps 75:7but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another.
- Prov 29:26Many seek the ruler’s favor, but a man receives justice from the LORD.
Resources, by level
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:38 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.