Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, September 11th, 2025
the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 17:4

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Job;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Worm;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Exalt;   Job, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You have closed their minds to understanding,therefore you will not honor them.
Hebrew Names Version
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.
King James Version
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
English Standard Version
Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
New Century Version
You have closed their minds to understanding. Do not let them win over me.
New English Translation
Because you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.
Amplified Bible
"But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding, Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me].
New American Standard Bible
"For You have kept their hearts away from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.
World English Bible
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not set them vp on hie.
Legacy Standard Bible
For You have hidden their heart from insight,Therefore You will not exalt them.
Berean Standard Bible
You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
Contemporary English Version
My friends won't really listen, all because of you, and so you must be the one to prove them wrong.
Complete Jewish Bible
For you have shut their minds to common sense; therefore you will not let them triumph.
Darby Translation
For thou hast hidden their heart from understanding; therefore thou wilt not exalt [them].
Easy-to-Read Version
You have closed my friends' minds, and they don't understand. Please don't let them win.
George Lamsa Translation
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore they shall exalt themselves in their deception.
Good News Translation
You have closed their minds to reason; don't let them triumph over me now.
Lexham English Bible
Indeed, you have closed their mind from understanding; therefore, you will not let them triumph.
Literal Translation
For You have hidden their heart from understanding; therefore You shall not exalt them .
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thou hast withholde their hertes from vnderstodinge, therfore shall they not be set vp an hye.
American Standard Version
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
Bible in Basic English
You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause you will not give them honour.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.
King James Version (1611)
For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For thou hast withholden their heartes from vnderstanding, therefore shalt thou not set [them] vp on hie.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For thou hast hid their heart from wisdom; therefore thou shalt not exalt them.
English Revised Version
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thou hast maad the herte of hem fer fro doctryn, `ethir knowyng of treuthe; therfor thei schulen not be enhaunsid.
Update Bible Version
For you have hid their heart from understanding: Therefore you shall not exalt [them].
Webster's Bible Translation
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
New King James Version
For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.
New Living Translation
You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph.
New Life Bible
For You have kept their heart from understanding, so You will not honor them.
New Revised Standard
Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, their heart, hast thou kept back from understanding, On this account, thou wilt not exalt them.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou hast set their heart far from understanding, therefore they shall not be exalted.
Revised Standard Version
Since thou hast closed their minds to understanding, therefore thou wilt not let them triumph.
Young's Literal Translation
For their heart Thou hast hidden From understanding, Therefore Thou dost not exalt them.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For You have kept their heart from understanding, Therefore You will not exalt them.

Contextual Overview

1"My spirit is broken, my days used up, my grave dug and waiting. See how these mockers close in on me? How long do I have to put up with their insolence? 3"O God, pledge your support for me. Give it to me in writing, with your signature. You're the only one who can do it! These people are so useless! You know firsthand how stupid they can be. You wouldn't let them have the last word, would you? Those who betray their own friends leave a legacy of abuse to their children. 6"God, you've made me the talk of the town— people spit in my face; I can hardly see from crying so much; I'm nothing but skin and bones. Decent people can't believe what they're seeing; the good-hearted wake up and insist I've given up on God. 9 "But principled people hold tight, keep a firm grip on life, sure that their clean, pure hands will get stronger and stronger!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

2 Samuel 15:31, 2 Samuel 17:14, 2 Chronicles 25:16, Isaiah 19:14, Matthew 11:25, Matthew 13:11, Romans 11:8, 1 Corinthians 1:20

Reciprocal: Job 12:2 - ye are the people Job 12:20 - taketh Job 12:24 - He taketh Job 17:10 - for I Job 18:3 - Wherefore Job 39:17 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I'll make you a great nation and bless you. I'll make you famous; you'll be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I'll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you."
Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, "I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I'll make a covenant between us and I'll give you a huge family."
Genesis 17:18
Recovering, Abraham said to God, "Oh, keep Ishmael alive and well before you!"
Genesis 35:11
God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants.
Genesis 48:19
But his father wouldn't do it. He said, "I know, my son; but I know what I'm doing. He also will develop into a people, and he also will be great. But his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will enrich nations." Then he blessed them both: Israel will use your names to give blessings: May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. In that he made it explicit: he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For thou hast hid their heart from understanding,.... That is, the hearts of his friends, and therefore they were unfit to undertake his cause, or be sureties for him, or be judges in it. It is the same thing as to hide understanding from their hearts, which God sometimes does in a natural sense; when men like not the knowledge of him, as attainable by the light of nature, he gives them up to reprobate minds, minds void of knowledge and judgment in things natural; and sometimes, in a spiritual sense, he hides men's hearts from the knowledge of things divine and evangelical, and even this he does from the wise and prudent of this world; yea, sometimes he hides the knowledge of his providential dealings with men from his own people, as he did from Asaph, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and others; and, as it seems, from Job's friends, who therefore mistook his case, and were very unfit and insufficient to determine it:

therefore shalt thou not exalt [them]; to such honour and dignity, to be umpires, arbitrators, or judges in the case of Job; this God had reserved for another, Elihu, or rather himself, who decided the controversy between Job and his friends, and declared in his favour, and that they had not spoken the thing that was right of him, as his servant Job had done, Job 42:7;

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For thou hast hid their heart from understanding - That is, the heart of his professed friends. Job says that they were blind and perverse, and indisposed to render him justice; and he therefore pleads that he may carry his cause directly before God. He attributes their want of understanding to the agency of God in accordance with the doctrine which prevailed in early times, and which is so often expressed in the Scriptures, that God is the source of light and truth, and that when people are blinded it is in accordance with his wise purposes; see Isaiah 6:9-10. It is “because” they were thus blind and perverse, that he asks the privilege of carrying the cause at once up to God - and who could blame him for such a desire?

Therefore thou shalt not exalt them - By the honor of deciding a case like this, or by the reputation of wisdom. The name of sage or “wise” man was among the most valued in those times; but Job says that that would not be awarded to his friends. God would not exalt or honor people thus devoid of wisdom.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 17:4. For thou hast hid their heart — This address is to God; and here he is represented as doing that which in the course of his providence he only permits to be done.

Shalt thou not exalt them. — This was exactly fulfilled: not one of Job's friends was exalted; on the contrary, God condemned the whole; and they were not received into the Divine favour till Job sacrificed, and made intercession for them.


 
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