Lectionary Calendar
Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

New Century Version

Job 15:5

Your sin teaches your mouth what to say; you use words to trick others.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Thompson Chain Reference - Craftiness;   Duplicity;   Simplicity-Duplicity;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Eliphaz;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Evil;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Works, Good;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Tongue;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Eliphaz (2);   Job, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Your iniquity teaches you what to say,and you choose the language of the crafty.
Hebrew Names Version
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.
King James Version
For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
English Standard Version
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
New English Translation
Your sin inspires your mouth; you choose the language of the crafty.
Amplified Bible
"For your guilt teaches your mouth, And you choose [to speak] the language of the crafty and cunning.
New American Standard Bible
"For your wrongdoing teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the cunning.
World English Bible
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For thy mouth declareth thine iniquitie, seeing thou hast chosen ye tongue of the crafty.
Legacy Standard Bible
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,And you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Berean Standard Bible
For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
Contemporary English Version
And your sinful, scheming mind is the source of all you say.
Complete Jewish Bible
Your iniquity is teaching you how to speak, and deceit is your language of choice.
Darby Translation
For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.
Easy-to-Read Version
What you say clearly shows your sin. Job, you are trying to hide your sin by using clever words.
George Lamsa Translation
For your mouth is accustomed to utter sinful things, and you choose the deceitful tongue of the crafty.
Good News Translation
Your wickedness is evident by what you say; you are trying to hide behind clever words.
Lexham English Bible
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Literal Translation
For your iniquity teaches your mouth; and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but thy wickednesse teacheth thy mouth, and so thou hast chosen the a craftie tonge.
American Standard Version
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Bible in Basic English
For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
King James Version (1611)
For thy mouth vttereth thine iniquitie, and thou choosest the tongue of the craftie.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For thy mouth setteth forth thyne owne iniquitie, seeing thou hast chosen the tongue of the craftie.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Thou art guilty by the words of thy mouth, neither hast thou discerned the words of the mighty.
English Revised Version
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For wickidnesse hath tauyt thi mouth, and thou suest the tunge of blasfemeris.
Update Bible Version
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Webster's Bible Translation
For thy mouth uttereth thy iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
New King James Version
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the tongue of the crafty.
New Living Translation
Your sins are telling your mouth what to say. Your words are based on clever deception.
New Life Bible
You show your sin by what you say. You are trying to hide behind your words.
New Revised Standard
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For thine own mouth would teach thine iniquity, and thou wouldst choose the tongue of the crafty.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For thy iniquity hath taught thy mouth, and thou imitatest the tongue of blasphemers.
Revised Standard Version
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Young's Literal Translation
For thy mouth teacheth thine iniquity, And thou chooseth the tongue of the subtile.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For your guilt teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.

Contextual Overview

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 2 "A wise person would not answer with empty words or fill his stomach with the hot east wind. 3 He would not argue with useless words or make speeches that have no value. 4 But you even destroy respect for God and limit the worship of him. 5 Your sin teaches your mouth what to say; you use words to trick others. 6 It is your own mouth, not mine, that shows you are wicked; your own lips testify against you. 7 "You are not the first man ever born; you are not older than the hills. 8 You did not listen in on God's secret council. But you limit wisdom to yourself. 9 You don't know any more than we know. You don't understand any more than we understand. 10 Old people with gray hair are on our side; they are even older than your father.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

uttereth: Heb. teacheth, Job 9:22-24, Job 12:6, Mark 7:21, Mark 7:22, Luke 6:45, James 1:26

thou choosest: Psalms 50:19, Psalms 50:20, Psalms 52:2-4, Psalms 64:3, Psalms 120:2, Psalms 120:3, Jeremiah 9:3-5, Jeremiah 9:8, James 3:5-8

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:24 - I am Job 9:20 - mine Job 22:5 - not thy Job 22:20 - our substance Job 33:32 - General Job 34:8 - General Jeremiah 9:5 - taught Matthew 23:31 - witnesses Matthew 25:26 - Thou Luke 19:22 - Out

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
Genesis 13:16
I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people.
Genesis 15:7
God said to Abram, "I am the Lord who led you out of Ur of Babylonia so that I could give you this land to own."
Genesis 15:8
But Abram said, "Lord God , how can I be sure that I will own this land?"
Genesis 16:10
The angel also said, "I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted."
Genesis 22:17
I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, and they will capture the cities of their enemies.
Genesis 26:4
I will give you many descendants, as hard to count as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed.
Genesis 28:14
Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
Exodus 32:13
Remember the men who served you—Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You promised with an oath to them and said, ‘I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised them, and it will be theirs forever.'"
Deuteronomy 1:10
The Lord your God has made you grow in number so that there are as many of you as there are stars in the sky.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity,.... Which was in his heart, and so was an evidence against him, and proved him perverse, and made good the above charges exhibited against him: or "thine iniquity teaches thy mouth" y; the wickedness that was in his heart prompted his mouth to speak the things he did, see Matthew 12:34; and this, as it was an instance of his folly, Proverbs 15:2; so a proof of his casting off the fear of the Lord; for if that had been before his eyes, he would have bridled his lips, and not uttered all the wickedness of his heart: for he that "bridleth not his tongue, this man's religion is vain", James 1:26;

and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty; coloured over things under specious pretences of religion and godliness, so that the simple and ignorant took him for a holy good man, when he was at heart an hypocrite; in this light Eliphaz puts Job, as one that walked and talked in craftiness, and was a deceitful worker, and imposed upon men with false glosses and plausible pretences.

y יאלף עונך פיך "docuit iniquitas tua os tuum", V. L. Pagninus, Bolducius; "docebit", Montanus; "docet", Piscator, Cocceius; so Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity - Margin, “teacheth.” That is, “your whole argument shows that you are a guilty man. A man who can defend such positions about God cannot be a pious man, or have any proper veneration for the Most High.” A man may pursue an argument, and defend positions, that shall as certainly show that he is destitute of religion as though he lived an abandoned life; and he who holds opinions that are dishonorable to God, can no more be a pious man than if he dishonored God by violating his law.

Thou choosest the tongue of the crafty - Instead of pursuing an argument with candor and sincerity, you have resorted to miserable sophisms, such as running disputants use. You have not showed a disposition to ascertain and defend the truth, but have relied on the arts and evasions of the subtle disputant and the rhetorician. His whole discourse, according to Eliphaz, was a work of mere art, designed to blind his hearers; to deceive them with a favorable opinion of his piety; and to give some plausible, but delusive view of the government of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 15:5. For thy mouth uttereth — In attempting to justify thyself, thou hast added iniquity to sin, and hast endeavoured to impute blame to thy Maker.

The tongue of the crafty. — Thou hast varnished thy own conduct, and used sophistical arguments to defend thyself. Thou resemblest those cunning persons, ערומים arumim, who derive their skill and dexterity from the old serpent, "the nachash, who was ערום arum, subtle, or crafty, beyond all the beasts of the field;" Genesis 3:1. Thy wisdom is not from above, but from beneath.


 
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