Job 33:13
in Job 33Why do you complain to Him that He answers nothing a man asks?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Why dost thou strive against him, For that he giveth not account of any of his matters?
KJV
Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.
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This verse in Job 33
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Why dost thou strive against him? - By refusing to submit to him, and by calling in question his wisdom and goodness. For he giveth not account of any of his matters - Margin, as in Hebrew “answereth not.” The idea is, that it is as useless as it is improper to contend with God. He does his own pleasure, and deals with man as he deems best and right. The reason of his doings he does not state, nor has man any power to extort from him a statement of the causes why he afflicts us.
This site's exposition
Why do you complain to Him
on Job 33:13-15
Elihu answers: “God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices”. Delitzsch reads this as Elihu's first correction, that Job has missed the forms God's speech takes, “a dream, in a vision in the night”. Gill notes dream and vision were ordinary means in the patriarchal world.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
And so he then says, "You contend against him because he will not answer all your arguments." He wanted to take this from these preceding works of Job, and from what he said in Chapter Nineteen, "Behold, I will shout out violently in my suffering …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Thou contendest against Him, because He hath not replied to thee to all thy words. God will speak once, and will not repeat the same thing a second time. It is natural to the afflicted heart, when it beholds any thing going contrary to its wishes, to wish to gain an answer, if possible, by the voice of God, why things are in this way, and not in that: to consult God in this whole matter under debate, and to acquiesce on learning the meaning of His reply.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
He is not bound either to justify his own proceedings or to satisfy our demands and enquiries; his judgments will certainly justify themselves. If we do not satisfy ourselves in them, it is our own fault. It is therefore daring impiety for us to arraign God at our bar, or challenge him to show cause for what he doeth, to say unto him, What doest thou? or, Why doest thou so?
He - Useth not to give an account to his creatures of the grounds and reasons of his judgments or dispensations as being the supreme governor of all persons and things, in whose will it becometh all men to acquiesce.
Why dost thou strive against him?....
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The care God takes of man, and the various ways and means he uses to do his soul good, which we have reason to think he designs when he lays bodily afflictions upon him,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
(Isa 45:9). his matters--ways. Our part is, not to "strive" with God, but to submit. To believe it is right because He does it, not because we see all the reasons for His doing it.
Why dost thou strive against him? - Is it not useless to contend with God? Can he do any thing that is not right? As to his giving thee any account of the reasons why he deals thus and thus with thee, or any one else, thou needest not expect it; he is sovereign, and is not to be called to the bar of his creatures. It is sufficient for thee to know that “he is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
for God exceeds man God does not have to be so exact with man because the Holy One, blessed be He, has more virtues than man.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מַ֭דּוּעַ | madua' | why? | H4069 → | 72 times |
| אֵלָ֣יו | ʾelav | against him | H413 → | 5510 times |
| רִיב֑וֹתָ | rivota | have you contended | H7378 → | 67 times |
| כִּ֥י | ki | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| כָל־ | khol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| דְּ֝בָרָ֗יו | devarav | words his | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| לֹ֣א־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יַעֲנֶֽה׃ | yaaneh | he answers | H6030 → | 331 times |
מַ֭דּוּעַwhy?
madua'H4069 →72 times
אֵלָ֣יוagainst him
ʾelavH413 →5510 times
רִיב֑וֹתָhave you contended
rivotaH7378 →67 times
כִּ֥יthat
kiH3588 →4482 times
כָל־all
khol-H3605 →5413 times
דְּ֝בָרָ֗יוwords his
devaravH1697 →1440 times
לֹ֣א־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יַעֲנֶֽה׃he answers
yaanehH6030 →331 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
Romans 11:34“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
it leads to
- 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 40:13
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
Through
Psalms 62:11God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,
it leads to
- Revelation 19:1
After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!
- Job 33:14
For God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices.
- Revelation 19:1
Through
Daniel 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain…
it leads to
- Job 42:2
“I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.
- Psalms 135:6
The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths.
- Psalms 115:3
Our God is in heaven; He does as He pleases.
- Romans 11:33–36
O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
- Job 42:2
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 (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; 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.