Job 13:25
in Job 13Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wilt thou harass a driven leaf? And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
KJV
Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
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This verse in Job 13
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Job compares himself to a leaf already fallen, which the storm still chases hither and thither. break--literally, "shake with (Thy) terrors." Jesus Christ does not "break the bruised reed" (Isa 42:3, 27:8).
This site's exposition
How many are my iniquities and sins
on Job 13:23-25
"Reveal to me my transgression and sin" is the demand the chapter built toward, a bill of particulars in place of the friends' general charge. "Would You frighten a windblown leaf" pictures the disproportion the friends never weighed, the Almighty's strength against so weak a man.
This site's exposition
Would You frighten a windblown leaf?
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture a fallen leaf that the wind still chases. Barnes hears Job ask why the power of God should chase a thing so light, and Clarke why God should frighten so frail a man. Dry chaff has no strength to resist.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Why, Job says, do you not act clearly? Why do you not say, See, this is the reason why I punish you? It is no small consolation for those who are chastised to know the reason for their punishment. That is why Job says, "Make me know my transgressions," but God will not let him know.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Wilt Thou shew Thy power against a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt Thou pursue the dry stubble? For what is man but a leaf, who fell in Paradise from the tree? what but a leaf is he, who is caught by the wind of temptation, and lifted up by the gusts of his passions? For the mind of man is agitated as it were by as many gusts, as it undergoes temptations. Thus very often anger agitates it; when anger is gone, empty mirth succeeds.
Second, because someone could object that God punished him in order to show his power, he rejects this cause saying, "Do you show your power against the leaf which is driven by the wind?" For it is not fitting that some very powerful man should …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you. 3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. 4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
He sadly complains of God's severe dealings with him. He owns it was for his sins that God thus contended with him, but thinks it hard, 1. That his former sins, long since committed, should now be remembered against him, and he should he reckoned with for the old scores (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro?....
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3269: “A Frail Leaf” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
POOR Job! Who could have been brought lower than he? He had lost his possessions, his children, his health—he was covered with sore boils—and he was aggravated by the unkind speeches of his friends. In his deep distress he turns to God and finding no other plea so near at hand, he makes a plea out of his own distress. He compares himself to the weakest thing he could think of and then he says to God, the Great and the Merciful, "Will You, so glorious in power and so matchless in goodness—will You break me, who am like a poor leaf fallen from the tree, sere and dry, and driven to and fro in the wind?" Thus he draws an argument out of his own weakness. Because he is so low and insignificant and powerless, he lays hold upon the Divine strength and pleads for pity. It is a common figure he uses, that of a leaf driven to and fro. Strong gusts of wind, it may be in the autumn when the leaves hang but lightly upon the trees, send them falling in showers around us. Quite helpless to stay their own course, fluttering in the air to and fro, like winged birds that cannot steer themselves, but are guided by every fitful blast that blows upon them, at last they sink into the mire to be trodden down and forgotten.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3269: “A Frail Leaf” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
POOR Job! Who could have been brought lower than he? He had lost his possessions, his children, his health—he was covered with sore boils—and he was aggravated by the unkind speeches of his friends. In his deep distress he turns to God and finding no other plea so near at hand, he makes a plea out of his own distress.
Wilt thou break a leaf - Is it becoming thy dignity to concern thyself with a creature so contemptible?
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? - Job here means to say that the treatment of God in regard to him was like treading down a leaf that was driven about by the wind - an insigni ficant, unsettled, and worthless thing. “Wouldst thou show thy power against such an object?” - The sense is, that it was not worthy of God thus to pursue one so unimportant, and so incapable of offering any resistance.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֶעָלֶ֣ה | healeh | ¿ a leaf | H5929 → | |
| נִדָּ֣ף | nidaf | driven about | H5086 → | |
| תַּעֲר֑וֹץ | taarotz | will you terrify | H6206 → | |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| קַ֖שׁ | kash | chaff | H7179 → | 16 times |
| יָבֵ֣שׁ | yavesh | dry | H3002 → | |
| תִּרְדֹּֽף׃ | tirdof | will you pursue? | H7291 → | 143 times |
הֶעָלֶ֣ה¿ a leaf
healehH5929 →
נִדָּ֣ףdriven about
nidafH5086 →
תַּעֲר֑וֹץwill you terrify
taarotzH6206 →
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
קַ֖שׁchaff
kashH7179 →16 times
יָבֵ֣שׁdry
yaveshH3002 →
תִּרְדֹּֽף׃will you pursue?
tirdofH7291 →143 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
Matthew 12:20A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.
it leads to
- Isaiah 42:3–4
A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.
- Ezekiel 34:16
I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’
- Isaiah 61:1–3
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty…
- Psalms 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
- Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight…
- Isaiah 42:3–4
Through
Job 21:18Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
it leads to
- Psalms 1:4
Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.
- Psalms 83:13
Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.
- Psalms 1:4
Through
Job 14:3Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?
it leads to
- Psalms 144:3
O LORD, what is man, that You regard him, the son of man that You think of him?
- Psalms 144:3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3269: “A Frail Leaf” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 13:24-25B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.