Job 21:22
in Job 21Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judgeth those that are high?
KJV
Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
11 notes on this verseVer. 22. Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing that He judgeth those that are high. 61. When in the things, which are done concerning us, we have doubts, we ought to look at others, which are well known to us, and to pacify that murmuring of the thought, which had arisen to us in consequence of our uncertainty. For see, whereas scourges recover the Elect to life, and not even scourges keep the wicked from bad deeds, Almighty God's judgments upon us are very secret and are not unjust.
This site's exposition
Can anyone teach knowledge to God
The verse keeps the argument from becoming its own arrogance: "Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high". It checks Job from claiming he could correct the divine government. Davidson reads it as a limit Job sets on himself, describing what happens without prescribing what must.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Since he spoke before him [Zophar] and said "from the time man was set upon the earth," things go on in this manner. Job addresses his reproaches to him, because he ignores what is clear and evident. He says to him, you asserted that things are not as I said, but quite the opposite. Therefore, no one must know the secret plans of God, who rules the entire creation. Now tell me, why are those who are not impious punished? One is in need, the other in wealth, but their wickedness is the same.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Since Job had established above that evil men sometimes experience prosperous things and sometimes adverse things in this life, which causes doubt, he therefore seeks to resolve this doubt. First he shows that this does not arise from a defect in divine knowledge, as though …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Teach - How to govern the world? For so you do, while you tell him that he must not afflict the godly, nor give the wicked prosperity. That he must invariably punish the wicked, and reward the righteous in this world.
He overthrows the ground of their severe censures of him, by showing that the destruction of the wicked is reserved for the other world, and that they often escape to the last in this world (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Shall any teach God knowledge?.... Who is a God of knowledge, and knows all things, that teaches men knowledge; will any one take upon him to teach him the path of judgment, and the way of understanding, how he shall govern the world, and dispose of men and things in it? see Isa 40:
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
So vast is the disproportion between time and eternity that, if hell be the lot of every sinner at last, it makes little difference if one goes singing thither and another sighing. How various the circumstances of people's dying are.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Shall any teach God knowledge? - Who among the sons of men can pretend to teach God how to govern the world, who himself teaches those that are high - the heavenly inhabitants, that excel us infinitely both in knowledge and wisdom? Neither angels nor men can comprehend the reasons of the Divine providence. It is a depth known only to God.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Reply of Job, "In all these assertions you try to teach God how He ought to deal with men, rather than prove that He does in fact so deal with them. Experience is against you.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Shall any teach God knowledge? - This commences the reply of Job to the sentiments of his friends to which he had just adverted. The substance of the reply is, that no one could prescribe to God how he should deal with people, and that it; was not a FACT that people were treated as they had supposed. Instead of its being true, as they maintained, that wicked people would all be cut down in some fearful and violent manner, as a punishment for their sins, Job goes on Job 21:23-26 to show that they died in a great variety of ways - one in full age and prosperity, and another in another manner. This, he says, God directs as he pleases. No one can teach him knowledge; no one can tell him what he ought to do. The reasoning of his friends, Job seems to imply, had been rather an attempt to teach God how he “ought” to deal with people, than a patient and candid inquiry into the “facts” in the case, and he says the facts were not as they supposed they ought to be. Seeing he judgeth those that are high - Or rather, he judges “among the things” that are high. He rules over the great affairs of the universe, and it is presumptuous in us to attempt to prescribe to him how he shall govern the world. The design of this and the following verses is to show, that, from the manner in which people actually die, no argument can be derived to determine what was their religious condition, or their real character. Nothing is more fallacious than that kind of reasoning.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַלְאֵ֥ל | halel | ¿ to God | H410 → | 241 times |
| יְלַמֶּד־ | yelamed- | will anyone teach | H3925 → | |
| דָּ֑עַת | daat | knowledge | H1847 → | 92 times |
| וְ֝ה֗וּא | vehu' | and he | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| רָמִ֥ים | ramim | exalted [ones] | H7311 → | 190 times |
| יִשְׁפּֽוֹט׃ | yishpot | he judges | H8199 → | 202 times |
הַלְאֵ֥ל¿ to God
halelH410 →241 times
יְלַמֶּד־will anyone teach
yelamed-H3925 →
דָּ֑עַתknowledge
daatH1847 →92 times
וְ֝ה֗וּאand he
vehu'H1931 →1879 times
רָמִ֥יםexalted [ones]
ramimH7311 →190 times
יִשְׁפּֽוֹט׃he judges
yishpotH8199 →202 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
1 Corinthians 2:16“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:13–14
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?
- Romans 11:34
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
- John 16:13–16
However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to…
- Job 15:8
Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have…
- Isaiah 40:13–14
Through
Romans 11:34“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:13
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
- Job 36:22
Behold, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him?
- Isaiah 40:13
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job, Cambridge Bible; Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 21:19-22A; 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.