Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Job 13:4

You cover up your ignorance with lies; you are like doctors who can't heal anyone.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Falsehood;   Persecution;   Physician;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Diseases;   Lying;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Diseases;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Possession;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Physician;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Forge;   Job, Book of;   Physician;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - God, Children of;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for January 8;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You use lies like plaster;you are all worthless healers.
Hebrew Names Version
But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
King James Version
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
English Standard Version
As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
New Century Version
But you smear me with lies. You are worthless doctors, all of you!
New English Translation
But you, however, are inventors of lies; all of you are worthless physicians!
Amplified Bible
"But you smear me with lies [you defame my character most untruthfully]; You are all worthless physicians and have no remedy to offer.
New American Standard Bible
"But you smear me with lies; You are all worthless physicians.
World English Bible
But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For in deede ye forge lyes, and all you are physitions of no value.
Legacy Standard Bible
But you cover me with lies;You are all worthless physicians.
Berean Standard Bible
You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
Contemporary English Version
you are merely useless doctors, who treat me with lies.
Complete Jewish Bible
But you, what you do is whitewash with lies; you are all witch doctors!
Darby Translation
For ye indeed are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Easy-to-Read Version
But you men try to cover up your ignorance with lies. You are like worthless doctors who cannot heal anyone.
George Lamsa Translation
But you are forgers of lies; you are all healers of no value.
Lexham English Bible
"But you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless healers.
Literal Translation
But you are imputers of lies; you are all worthless healers.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
As for you, ye are workmasters of lyes: and vnprofitable Phisicians alltogether.
American Standard Version
But ye are forgers of lies; Ye are all physicians of no value.
Bible in Basic English
But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to put things right are of no value.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But ye are plasterers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
King James Version (1611)
But ye are forgers of lies, yee are all Physicians of no value.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
As for you, ye are workmaisters of lyes, and vnprofitable phisitians altogether.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But ye are all bad physicians, and healers of diseases.
English Revised Version
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and firste Y schewe you makeris of leesyng, and louyeris of weyward techyngis.
Update Bible Version
But you are forgers of lies; You are all physicians of no value.
Webster's Bible Translation
But ye [are] forgers of lies, ye [are] all physicians of no value.
New King James Version
But you forgers of lies, You are all worthless physicians.
New Living Translation
As for you, you smear me with lies. As physicians, you are worthless quacks.
New Life Bible
But you cover things with lies. You are doctors of no worth.
New Revised Standard
As for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless physicians.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, in truth, ye, do besmear with falsehood, Worthless physicians, all of you!
Douay-Rheims Bible
Having first shewn that you are forgers of lies, and maintainers of perverse opinions.
Revised Standard Version
As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
Young's Literal Translation
And yet, ye [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nought -- all of you,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But you smear with lies; You are all worthless physicians.

Contextual Overview

1Everything you say, I have heard before. I understand it all; I know as much as you do. I'm not your inferior. < 3 But my dispute is with God, not you; I want to argue my case with him. 4 You cover up your ignorance with lies; you are like doctors who can't heal anyone. 5 Say nothing, and someone may think you are wise! 6 Listen while I state my case. 7 Why are you lying? Do you think your lies will benefit God? 8 Are you trying to defend him? Are you going to argue his case in court? 9 If God looks at you closely, will he find anything good? Do you think you can fool God the way you fool others? 10 Even though your prejudice is hidden, he will reprimand you, 11 and his power will fill you with terror.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye are forgers: Job 4:7-11, Job 5:1-5, Job 8:3, Job 8:4, Job 18:5-21, Job 21:27-34, Job 22:6-30, Exodus 20:16, Psalms 119:69

physicians: Job 6:21, Job 16:2, Jeremiah 6:14, Jeremiah 8:22, Jeremiah 30:13, Jeremiah 46:11, Ezekiel 34:4, Hosea 5:13, Mark 2:17, Mark 5:26

Reciprocal: Genesis 34:13 - deceitfully 2 Chronicles 16:12 - physicians Nehemiah 6:8 - thou feignest Job 2:11 - to comfort Job 6:28 - if I lie Job 11:3 - thy lies Job 15:3 - he reason Job 21:34 - seeing Job 27:12 - altogether Job 36:4 - my Daniel 5:10 - let not Zechariah 10:2 - they comfort Matthew 27:4 - see Luke 8:43 - neither

Cross-References

Genesis 4:26
Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. It was then that people began using the Lord 's holy name in worship.
Genesis 13:1
Abram went north out of Egypt to the southern part of Canaan with his wife and everything he owned, and Lot went with him.
Genesis 13:2
Abram was a very rich man, with sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as silver and gold.
Genesis 13:3
Then he left there and moved from place to place, going toward Bethel. He reached the place between Bethel and Ai where he had camped before
Genesis 13:7
So quarrels broke out between the men who took care of Abram's animals and those who took care of Lot's animals. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were still living in the land.)
Genesis 13:8
Then Abram said to Lot, "We are relatives, and your men and my men shouldn't be quarreling.
Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his camp and settled near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord .
Psalms 26:8
I love the house where you live, O Lord , the place where your glory dwells.
Psalms 84:10
One day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else; I would rather stand at the gate of the house of my God than live in the homes of the wicked.
Psalms 107:1
"Give thanks to the Lord , because he is good; his love is eternal!"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But ye [are] forgers of lies,.... This is a hard and very harsh saying; Job was now in a passion, provoked by his friends, and retorts upon them what they had charged him with, Job 11:3; so often in controversies and disputes between good men undue heats arise, and unbecoming words drop from their lips and pens; to tell lies is a bad thing, but to forge them, to tell a studied premeditated lie, is dreadfully shocking, contrary to the grace of God, and which good men cannot allow themselves in, it is the character of bad men, see

Isaiah 63:8; but it may be Job may not design lies in a strict and proper sense, but falsehoods and untruths; for though no lie is of the truth, yet every untruth is not a lie; because a man may deliver an untruth, not knowing it to be so, but taking it for a truth, speaks it, without any design to impose upon and deceive others. Doctrinal lies may be intended, such as the false prophets told, whereby they made the hearts of the righteous sad, and were the untempered mortar they daubed with, Ezekiel 13:10; and the word here used has the same signification, and may be rendered, "daubers of lies" o; that colour over things, and make falsehoods look like truths, and deliver them for such, and like others speak lies in hypocrisy: now those here referred to were these, that God did not afflict good men, at least in any very severe manner, and that Job, being thus afflicted, was a bad man, and an hypocrite; both these Job charges as lies:

ye [are] all physicians of no value; or "idol physicians" p; not that pretended to the cure of idols, but were no better than idols themselves, and understood no more how to cure than they, than an Heathen deity, the god of physic Aesculapius, or anyone that might be reckoned such; but was no other than an image of wood or stone, and so could not be possessed of the faculty of healing, and such were Job's friends; an idol is nothing, and is good for nothing, and such were they as physicians, they were idol physicians, like the "idol shepherd", Zechariah 11:17; of no value at all: the Rabbins q say, the word used signifies a nerve or sinew of the neck, which when broken is incurable; and such physicians were they, that could do him no service, no more than cure a broken neck; this is to be understood of them, not as physicians of his body, that they pretended not to be; he was greatly diseased from head to foot, and had no hope of a recovery of his health, nor did they pretend to prescribe for him, nor does he reproach them on that account; but as physicians of his soul, afflicted and distressed, they came to administer comfort to him under his afflictions, but they were miserable comforters, as he elsewhere calls them, Job 16:2; instead of acting the part of the good Samaritan, and pouring in oil and wine into his wounds, Luke 10:34, they poured in vinegar, and made them bleed and smart the more, and added affliction to his affliction; instead of healing, they wounded him yet more and more; and, instead of binding up his wounds, opened them wider, and gave him sensible pain; instead of giving him the cordials of the Gospel, they gave him the corrosives the law; and instead of pointing out unto him the gracious promises of God, for the support of his afflicted soul, they loaded him with charges of sin, and set him to work by repentance and reformation to obtain the forgiveness of them: they said many good things, but misapplied them, being ignorant of the case, and so were physicians of no value; as such are who are ignorant of the nature and causes of a disease, and therefore make wrong prescriptions, though the medicines they prescribe may in themselves be good: indeed, in the cases of souls, or for the healing of the diseases of the soul, which are natural and hereditary, epidemical and universal, nauseous and loathsome, and of themselves mortal, all physicians are of no value; but Jesus Christ, who is the only physician of souls, the able, skilful, and infallible one, that cures all fully freely that apply unto him; bodily physicians are no use in such cases, nor merry companions, nor legal preachers, who direct to supple the wounds with tears of repentance, and bind them up with rags of a man's own righteousness; Christ is the only Saviour, his blood the balsam that heals every wound, and his righteousness that affords peace, joy, and comfort to afflicted minds, and delivers from those weights and pressures of mind with which they are bowed down.

o טפלי שקר "incrustatores fuci", Schultens. p רפאי אלל "curatores idoli", Bolducius; so Ramban; "medici idoli", Pineda; so some in Drusius. q Jarchi & Bar Tzemach.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But ye are forgers of lies - The word lies here seems to be used in a large sense, to denote sophisms, false accusations, errors. They maintained false positions; they did not see the exact truth in respect to the divine dealings, and to the character of Job. They maintained strenuously that Job was a hypocrite, and that God was punishing him for his sins. They maintained that God deals with people in exact accordance with their charactor in this world, all of which Job regarded as false doctrine, and asserted that they defended it with sophistical arguments invented for the purpose, and thus they could be spoken of as “forgers of lies.”

Physicians of no value - The meaning is, that they had come to give him consolation, but nothing that they had said had imparted comfort. They were like physicians sent for to visit the sick, who could do nothing when they came; compare Job 16:2.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 13:4. Ye are forgers of lies — Ye frame deceitful arguments: ye reason sophistically, and pervert truth and justice, in order to support your cause.

Physicians of no value. — Ye are as feeble in your reasonings as ye are inefficient in your skill. Ye can neither heal the wound of my mind, nor the disease of my body. In ancient times every wise man professed skill in the healing art, and probably Job's friends had tried their skill on his body as well as on his mind. He therefore had, in his argument against their teaching, a double advantage: Your skill in divinity and physic is equal: in the former ye are forgers of lies; in the latter, ye are good-for-nothing physicians. I can see no reason to depart from the general meaning of the original to which the ancient versions adhere. The Chaldee says: "Ye are idle physicians; and, like the mortified flesh which is cut off with the knife, so are the whole of you." The imagery in the former clause is chirurpical, and refers to the sewing together, or connecting the divided sides of wounds; for טפלי topheley, which we translate forgers, comes from טפל taphal, to fasten, tie, connect, sew together. And I question whether טפלי topheley here may not as well express SURGEONS, as רפאי ropheey, in the latter clause, PHYSICIANS. Ye are CHIRURGEONS of falsity, and worthless PHYSICIANS.


 
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