Job 10:17
in Job 10You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, And increasest thine indignation upon me: Changes and warfare are with me.
KJV
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
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This verse in Job 10
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThou renewest Thy witnesses against me, and multipliest Thy wrath: and pains war in me. HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION For 'God's witnesses' are they, who bear witness by the practice of holy works, what are the rewards of Truth that shall overtake the Elect. Hence too those, whom we see to have suffered for the sake of the Truth, we style in the Greek tongue, 'Martyrs,' i.e. witnesses. And the Lord says by John in the Angel's voice, Even in those days, wherein Antipas was my faithful witness, who was slain among you.
This site's exposition
If I am guilty, woe to me
on Job 10:15-17
"If I am guilty, woe to me" and "even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head" state the trap closing on Job. "You would hunt me like a lion" pictures relentless pursuit. "Hardships assault me in wave after wave" pictures a besieging army sent in successive companies.
This site's exposition
You produce new witnesses against me
Clarke observes that almost every term in this complaint belongs to a court of law. Barnes takes the witnesses as Job's new hardships, which his friends read as God's own witness that he was wicked. The last line pictures wave after wave of troops.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
A human being is called "lion" with good reason, because he is a royal animal, and even more so the righteous, because, by preserving the honor of God's form, he is dreadful to his enemies. That is why he has been properly called so in …
The Medieval Church1 voice
He shows the type of torment this is continuing, "You set up witnesses against me." For Eliphaz and his companions made a pretense of defending the justice of God and in this they wanted to stand like witnesses to speak on behalf of God and …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
God was not only strange to him, but showed himself marvellous upon him, by bringing him into uncommon troubles and so making him prodigy, a wonder unto many. All wondered that God would inflict and that Job could bear so much. That which made his afflictions most grievous was that he felt God's indignation in them; it was this that made them taste so bitter and lie so heavy.
Witnesses - Thy judgments, which are the evidences both of my sins, and of thy wrath. Indignation - My miseries are the effects of thine anger. Army - Changes may denote the various kinds, and an army the great number of his afflictions.
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me - Margin, “that is, plagues.” The Hebrew is, “thy witnesses” - עדיך ‛ēdeykā. So the Vulgate. The Septuagint is, “renewing against me my examination,” τὴν ἐξέτασίν μου tēn ecetasin mou. Rabbi Levi supposes that the plague of the leprosy is intended. But the true meaning seems to be, that God sent upon him calamities which were regarded by his friends as “proofs” or “witnesses” that he was wicked, the public and solemn attestation of God, as they supposed, to the truth that he was eminently a bad man.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
witnesses--His accumulated trials were like a succession of witnesses brought up in proof of his guilt, to wear out the accused. changes and war--rather, "(thou settest in array) against me host after host" (literally, "changes and a host," that is, a succession of hosts); namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from his friends.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Thou renewest thy witnesses - In this speech of Job he is ever referring to trials in courts of judicature, and almost all his terms are forensic. Thou bringest witnesses in continual succession to confound and convict me. Changes and war - I am as if attacked by successive troops; one company being wearied, another succeeds to the attack, so that I am harassed by continual warfare.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תְּחַדֵּ֬שׁ | techadesh | you renew | H2318 → | |
| עֵדֶ֨יךָ׀ | ʾedeikha | witnesses your | H5707 → | 70 times |
| נֶגְדִּ֗י | negdi | before me | H5048 → | 151 times |
| וְתֶ֣רֶב | veterev | and you increase | H7235 → | 227 times |
| כַּֽ֭עַשְׂךָ | kaaskha | vexation your | H3708 → | 25 times |
| עִמָּדִ֑י | ʾimadi | with me | H5978 → | 42 times |
| חֲלִיפ֖וֹת | chalifot | changes | H2487 → | |
| וְצָבָ֣א | vetzava' | and an army | H6635 → | 485 times |
| עִמִּֽי׃ | ʾimi | [are] with me | H5973 → | 1050 times |
תְּחַדֵּ֬שׁyou renew
techadeshH2318 →
עֵדֶ֨יךָ׀witnesses your
ʾedeikhaH5707 →70 times
נֶגְדִּ֗יbefore me
negdiH5048 →151 times
וְתֶ֣רֶבand you increase
veterevH7235 →227 times
כַּֽ֭עַשְׂךָvexation your
kaaskhaH3708 →25 times
עִמָּדִ֑יwith me
ʾimadiH5978 →42 times
חֲלִיפ֖וֹתchanges
chalifotH2487 →
וְצָבָ֣אand an army
vetzava'H6635 →485 times
עִמִּֽי׃[are] with me
ʾimiH5973 →1050 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Zephaniah 1:12And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
it leads to
- Amos 6:1
Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.
- Jeremiah 48:11
Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and…
- Ezekiel 8:12
“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are…
- Amos 6:1
Through
Psalms 55:19God will hear and humiliate them— the One enthroned for the ages— Selah because they do not change and they have no fear of God.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 33:27
The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He drives out the enemy before you, giving the command, ‘Destroy him!’
- Zephaniah 1:12
And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
- Ecclesiastes 8:11
When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
- Deuteronomy 33:27
Through
Ruth 1:21I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 2:7–8
The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.
- Job 1:21
saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
- 1 Samuel 2:7–8
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IX; Hesychius of Jerusalem, HOMILIES ON JOB 13.10.16-17A; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.