Job 11:5

Bible in Basic English

But if only God would take up the word, opening his lips in argument with you;

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But if only God would speakand open his lips against you!

Hebrew Names Version
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,

King James Version
But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

English Standard Version
But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you,

New Century Version
I wish God would speak and open his lips against you

New English Translation
But if only God would speak, if only he would open his lips against you,

Amplified Bible
"But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips [to speak] against you,

New American Standard Bible
"But if only God would speak, And open His lips against you,

World English Bible
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,

Geneva Bible (1587)
But, oh that God would speake and open his lippes against thee!

Legacy Standard Bible
But would that God might speak,And open His lips against you,

Berean Standard Bible
But if only God would speak and open His lips against you,

Contemporary English Version
But I wish he would speak

Complete Jewish Bible
I wish that God would speak, would open his mouth to answer you,

Darby Translation
But oh that +God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

Easy-to-Read Version
I wish God would answer you and tell you that you are wrong.

George Lamsa Translation
But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you;

Good News Translation
How I wish God would answer you!

Lexham English Bible
But, O that God might speak, and that he would open his lips to you,

Literal Translation
But who will grant that God would speak and open His lips against you,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
O that God wolde speake, and open his lippes agaynst the,

American Standard Version
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against thee,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against thee;

King James Version (1611)
But, O that God would speake, and open his lippes against thee,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But O that God woulde speake, and open his lippes against thee:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But oh that the Lord would speak to thee, and open his lips to thee!

English Revised Version
But Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And `Y wolde, that God spak with thee, and openyde hise lippis to thee;

Update Bible Version
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,

Webster's Bible Translation
But Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

New King James Version
But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips against you,

New Living Translation
If only God would speak; if only he would tell you what he thinks!

New Life Bible
If only God would speak, and open His lips against you.

New Revised Standard
But O that God would speak, and open his lips to you,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, in very deed, oh that GOD would speak, that he would open his lips with thee:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I wish that God would speak with thee, and would open his lips to thee,

Revised Standard Version
But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips to you,

Young's Literal Translation
And yet, O that God had spoken! And doth open His lips with thee.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But would that God might speak, And open His lips against you,

Contextual Overview

¹ Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said, ² Are all these words to go unanswered? and is a man seen to be right because he is full of talk? ³ Are your words of pride to make men keep quiet? and are you to make sport, with no one to put you to shame? ⁴ You may say, My way is clean, and I am free from sin in your eyes. ⁵ But if only God would take up the word, opening his lips in argument with you; ⁶ And would make clear to you the secrets of wisdom, and the wonders of his purpose!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 23:3-7, Job 31:35, Job 33:6-18, Job 38:1, Job 38:2, Job 40:1-5, Job 40:8, Job 42:7

Reciprocal: Job 9:14 - shall I Job 13:3 - Surely

Cross-References

Genesis 11:13
And after the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad went on living for four hundred and three years, and had sons and daughters:

Genesis 11:14
And Shelah was thirty years old when he became the father of Eber:

Genesis 11:23
And after the birth of Nahor, Serug went on living for two hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

Genesis 11:24
And Nahor was twenty-nine years old when he became the father of Terah:

Genesis 18:21
I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see.

Exodus 3:8
And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

Exodus 19:11
And by the third day let them be ready: for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai, before the eyes of all the people.

Exodus 19:18
And all the mountain of Sinai was smoking, for the Lord had come down on it in fire: and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a great burning; and all the mountain was shaking.

Exodus 19:20
Then the Lord came down on to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and the Lord sent for Moses to come up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

Psalms 11:4
The Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lord's seat is in heaven; his eyes are watching and testing the children of men.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But O that God would speak,.... To Job, and stop his mouth, so full of words; convict him of his lies, reprove him for his mocks and scoffs, and make him ashamed of them; refute his false doctrine and oppose it, and show him his folly and vanity in imagining it to be pure, and in conceit thinking himself to be free from sin, and even in the sight of God himself: Zophar seems by this wish to suggest, that what his friends had as yet spoke had had no effect upon Job, and signified nothing; and that he despaired of bringing him to any true sense of himself and his case, but that God only could do it; and therefore he entreats he would take him in hand, and speak unto him; as he had by his providences in afflicting him, so by his spirit in teaching and instructing him; and he adds:

and open his lips against thee; or rather, "with thee", or "to thee" a; converse with thee; speak out his mind freely; disclose the secrets of his wisdom, as in Job 11:6, and that for thy good; fully convince thee of thy sins, mistakes, and follies: for, notwithstanding all the heat and warmth of Zophar's spirit, yet, being a good man, as it cannot be thought he should wilfully and knowingly slander Job, and put a false gloss on his words, so neither could he desire any hurt or injury to be done him, or that God would deal with him as an enemy; only convince and reprove him for his sin, and justify himself and his own conduct, which he imagined Job had arraigned.

a עמך μετα σου, Sept. "tecum", Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis; "tibi", V. L. "ad te", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But oh that God would speak - Hebrew, “and truly, who will give that God should speak.” It is the expression of an earnest wish that God would address him, and bring him to a proper sense of his ill desert. The meaning is, that if God should speak to him he would by no means find himself so holy as he now claimed to be.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 11:5. But O that God would speak — How little feeling, humanity, and charity is there in this prayer!