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

Good News Translation

Job 19:16

When I call a servant, he doesn't answer— even when I beg him to help me.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Friendship;   Servant;   Thompson Chain Reference - Job;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ingratitude;   Servants;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Leper;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I call for my servant, but he does not answer,even if I beg him with my own mouth.
Hebrew Names Version
I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer; I beg him with my mouth.
King James Version
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
English Standard Version
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
New Century Version
I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even when I beg him with my own mouth.
New English Translation
I summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth.
Amplified Bible
"I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with words.
New American Standard Bible
"I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore his favor with my mouth.
World English Bible
I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer; I beg him with my mouth.
Geneva Bible (1587)
I called my seruant, but he would not answere, though I prayed him with my mouth.
Legacy Standard Bible
I call to my servant, but he does not answer;I have to implore him with my mouth.
Berean Standard Bible
I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.
Contemporary English Version
and when I call my servants, they pay no attention.
Complete Jewish Bible
I call my servant, and he doesn't answer, even if I beg him for a favor!
Darby Translation
I called my servant, and he answered not; I entreated him with my mouth.
Easy-to-Read Version
I call for my servant, but he does not answer. Even if I beg for help, he will not answer.
George Lamsa Translation
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth and implored him.
Lexham English Bible
I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I must personally plead with him.
Literal Translation
I called my servant, but he does not answer; I must beg him with my mouth.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
When I call vpon my seruaut, he geueth me no answere: no though I praie him with my mouth.
American Standard Version
I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, Though I entreat him with my mouth.
Bible in Basic English
At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, though I entreat him with my mouth.
King James Version (1611)
I called my seruant, and he gaue me no answere: I intreated him with my mouth.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
I called my seruaunt, and he gaue me no aunswere: [no though] I prayed him with my mouth.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated him.
English Revised Version
I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, though I entreat him with my mouth.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y clepide my seruaunt, and he answeride not to me; with myn owne mouth Y preiede hym.
Update Bible Version
I call to my slave, and he gives me no answer, [Though] I plead to him with my mouth.
Webster's Bible Translation
I called my servant, and he gave [me] no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.
New King James Version
I call my servant, but he gives no answer; I beg him with my mouth.
New Living Translation
When I call my servant, he doesn't come; I have to plead with him!
New Life Bible
I call to my servant, but he does not answer. I have to beg him.
New Revised Standard
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
To mine own servant, I called, and he would not answer, With mine own mouth, I kept entreating him;
Douay-Rheims Bible
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth.
Revised Standard Version
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must beseech him with my mouth.
Young's Literal Translation
To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with my mouth.

Contextual Overview

8 God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness. 9 He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation. 10 He batters me from every side. He uproots my hope and leaves me to wither and die. 11 God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy. 12 He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent. 13 God has made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who knew me; 14 my relatives and friends are gone. 15 Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner. 16 When I call a servant, he doesn't answer— even when I beg him to help me. 17 My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my servant: Job 1:15, Job 1:16, Job 1:17, Job 1:19

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 19:18 - diligent 2 Samuel 19:29 - Why speakest Job 19:15 - dwell Proverbs 29:19 - though

Cross-References

Genesis 19:4
Before the guests went to bed, the men of Sodom surrounded the house. All the men of the city, both young and old, were there.
Genesis 19:5
They called out to Lot and asked, "Where are the men who came to stay with you tonight? Bring them out to us!" The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them.
Genesis 19:8
Look, I have two daughters who are still virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want with them. But don't do anything to these men; they are guests in my house, and I must protect them."
Genesis 19:10
But the two men inside reached out, pulled Lot back into the house, and shut the door.
Genesis 19:15
At dawn the angels tried to make Lot hurry. "Quick!" they said. "Take your wife and your two daughters and get out, so that you will not lose your lives when the city is destroyed."
Genesis 19:16
Lot hesitated. The Lord , however, had pity on him; so the men took him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city.
Genesis 19:18
But Lot answered, "No, please don't make us do that, sir.
Genesis 19:19
You have done me a great favor and saved my life. But the hills are too far away; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die before I get there.
Genesis 19:35
So that night they got him drunk, and the younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he didn't know it.
Genesis 19:36
In this way both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their own father.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I called my servant,.... His manservant, whom he had hired into his house, and who waited upon his person, and had been his trusty and faithful servant, and was dear unto him, and he had shown him much respect and kindness in the time of his prosperity; him he called to him, to do this and that and the other thing for him as usual; and of whose assistance and service he might stand in more need, being so greatly afflicted in body as well as in other things; and who ought to have been obedient to his call in all things, and have served him with all readiness and cheerfulness, with all heartiness, sincerity, integrity, and faithfulness; and given him the same honour and reverence as before; but instead of all this, it is observed,

and he gave [me] no answer; whether he would or would not do what he ordered him to do; he took no notice of him, he turned a deaf ear to him, and his back upon him; he came not near him, but kept his place where he was, or walked off without showing any regard to what he said to him; he neither answered him by words, nor by deeds; neither signified his readiness to do what he was ordered, nor did it. In some cases it is criminal in servants to answer again, when they thwart and contradict their masters, or reply in a saucy, surly, and impudent manner; but when they are spoke to about their master's business, it becomes them to answer in a decent, humble, and respectable way, declaring their readiness to do their master's will and pleasure:

I entreated him with my mouth; which is an aggravation of his insolence and disobedience; such was the low condition Job was reduced unto, and such the humility of his mind under his present circumstances, that he laid aside the authority of a master, and only entreated his servant, and begged it as if it was a favour, to do this or the other for him; nor did he signify this by a look and cast of his eye, or by a nod of his head, or by the direction of his hand; but with his mouth he spake unto him, and let him know what he would have done; and this not in an authoritative, haughty, and imperious manner; but with good words, and in submissive language, as it was something he was beholden to his servant for, rather than obedience to be performed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I called my servant - He lost all respect for me, and paid me no attention.

I entreated him - I ceased to expect “obedience,” and tried to see what “persuasion” would do. I ceased to be master in my own house.


 
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