Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, July 29th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

New Century Version

Job 27:12

You have all seen this yourselves. So why are we having all this talk that means nothing?

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Holman Bible Dictionary - Vision;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Job;   Providence;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
All of you have seen this for yourselves,why do you keep up this empty talk?
Hebrew Names Version
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; Why then have you become altogether vain?
King James Version
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain?
English Standard Version
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
New English Translation
If you yourselves have all seen this, Why in the world do you continue this meaningless talk?
Amplified Bible
"Behold, all of you have seen it; Why then do you act vainly and foolishly [cherishing worthless concepts]?
New American Standard Bible
"Behold, all of you have seen it; Why then do you talk of nothing?
World English Bible
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; Why then have you become altogether vain?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, all ye your selues haue seene it: why then doe you thus vanish in vanitie?
Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, all of you have seen it;Why then do you speak with utter vanity?
Berean Standard Bible
Surely all of you have seen it for yourselves. Why then do you keep up this empty talk?
Contemporary English Version
All of you have seen these things for yourselves. So you have no excuse.
Complete Jewish Bible
Look, you all can see for yourselves; so why are you talking such empty nonsense?
Darby Translation
Behold, ye yourselves have all seen [it]; and why are ye thus altogether vain?
Easy-to-Read Version
But you have seen it all with your own eyes. So why do you say such useless things?
George Lamsa Translation
Behold, all of you have seen it; why then do you boast in vain?
Good News Translation
But no, after all, you have seen for yourselves; so why do you talk such nonsense?
Lexham English Bible
Look, you all have seen, and why in the world have you become altogether vain?
Literal Translation
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; when then do you become vain with this vanity?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, ye stonde in yor owne conceate, as though ye knew all thinges. Wherfore then do ye go aboute wt soch vayne wordes,
American Standard Version
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; Why then are ye become altogether vain?
Bible in Basic English
Truly, you have all seen it yourselves; why then have you become completely foolish?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye become altogether vain?
King James Version (1611)
Behold, all ye your selues haue seene it, why then are yee thus altogether vaine?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Behold, all ye your selues haue seene it, why then do ye thus vanishe in vanitie?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Behold, ye all know that ye are adding vanity to vanity.
English Revised Version
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye become altogether vain?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! alle ye knowen, and what speken ye veyn thingis with out cause?
Update Bible Version
Look, all you yourselves have seen it; Why then have you become altogether vain?
Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen [it]; why then are ye thus altogether vain?
New King James Version
Surely all of you have seen it; Why then do you behave with complete nonsense?
New Living Translation
But you have seen all this, yet you say all these useless things to me.
New Life Bible
All of you have seen it yourselves. Why then do you speak in a foolish way?
New Revised Standard
All of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! ye, have, all of you, seen, Wherefore, then, is it, that ye are utterly without purpose?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold you all know it, and why do you speak vain things without cause?
Revised Standard Version
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
Young's Literal Translation
Lo, ye -- all of you -- have seen, And why [is] this -- ye are altogether vain?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, all of you have seen it; Why then do you act foolishly?

Contextual Overview

11 "I will teach you about the power of God and will not hide the ways of the Almighty. 12 You have all seen this yourselves. So why are we having all this talk that means nothing? 13 "Here is what God has planned for evil people, and what the Almighty will give to cruel people: 14 They may have many children, but the sword will kill them. Their children who are left will never have enough to eat. 15 Then they will die of disease and be buried, and the widows will not even cry for them. 16 The wicked may heap up silver like piles of dirt and have so many clothes they are like piles of clay. 17 But good people will wear what evil people have gathered, and the innocent will divide up their silver. 18 The houses the wicked build are like a spider's web, like a hut that a guard builds. 19 The wicked are rich when they go to bed, but they are rich for the last time; when they open their eyes, everything is gone. 20 Fears come over them like a flood, and a storm snatches them away in the night.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye yourselves: Job 21:28-30, Ecclesiastes 8:14, Ecclesiastes 9:1-3

altogether: Job 6:25-29, Job 13:4-9, Job 16:3, Job 17:2, Job 19:2, Job 19:3, Job 21:3, Job 26:2-4

Cross-References

Genesis 9:25
he said, "May there be a curse on Canaan! May he be the lowest slave to his brothers."
Genesis 25:27
When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter. He loved to be out in the fields. But Jacob was a quiet man and stayed among the tents.
Genesis 27:21
Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son. Then I will know if you are really my son Esau."
Genesis 27:22
So Jacob came near to Isaac his father. Isaac touched him and said, "Your voice sounds like Jacob's voice, but your hands are hairy like the hands of Esau."
Genesis 27:36
Esau said, "Jacob is the right name for him. He has tricked me these two times. He took away my share of everything you own, and now he has taken away my blessing." Then Esau asked, "Haven't you saved a blessing for me?"
Deuteronomy 27:18
"Anyone will be cursed who sends a blind person down the wrong road." Then all the people will say, "Amen!"
Job 12:16
He is strong and victorious; both the one who fools others and the one who is fooled belong to him.
Jeremiah 48:10
A curse will be on anyone who doesn't do what the Lord says, and a curse will be on anyone who holds back his sword from killing.
Malachi 1:14
"The person who cheats will be cursed. He has a male animal in his flock and promises to offer it, but then he offers to the Lord an animal that has something wrong with it. I am a great king," says the Lord All-Powerful, "and I am feared by all the nations.
2 Corinthians 6:8
Some people honor us, but others blame us. Some people say evil things about us, but others say good things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, all ye yourselves have seen [it],.... As they were men of observation, at least made great pretensions to it, as well as of age and experience, they must have seen and observed somewhat at least of the above things; they must have seen the wicked, as David afterwards did, spreading himself like a green bay tree, and the hypocrites in easy and flourishing circumstances, and good men labouring under great afflictions and pressures, and Job himself was now an instance of that before their eyes:

why then are ye thus altogether vain? or "become vain in vanity" k; so exceeding vain, so excessively trifling, as to speak and act against the dictates of their own conscience, against their own sense, and what they saw with their own eyes, and advance notions so contrary thereunto; as to affirm that evil men are always punished of God in this life, and good men are succeeded and prospered by him; and so from Job's afflictions drew so vain and empty a conclusion, that he must be a wicked man and an hypocrite.

k הבל תהבלו "vanitate vanescitis", Pagninus, Junius Tremellius, Michaelis, Schultens "[vel] evanescitis", Montanus, Bolducius, Beza, Mercerus, Drusius, Piscator, Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it - You have had an opportunity of tracing the proofs of the wisdom of God in his works.

Why then are ye thus altogether vain - Why is it that you maintain such opinions - that you evince no more knowledge of his government and plans - that you argue so inconclusively about him and his administration! Why, since you have had an opportunity of observing the course of events, do you maintain that suffering is necessarily a proof of guilt, and that God deals with all people, in this life, according to their character? A close observation of the course of events would have taught you otherwise. Job proceeds to state what he supposes to be the exact truth on the subject, and particularly aims, in the following chapter, to show that the ways of God are inscrutable, and that we cannot be expected to comprehend them, and are not competent to pronounce upon them.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 27:12. Ye yourselves have seen it] Your own experience and observation have shown you that the righteous are frequently in affliction, and the wicked in affluence.

Why then are ye thus altogether vain? — The original is very emphatical: הבל תהבלו hebel tehbalu, and well expressed by Mr. Good: "Why then should ye thus babble babblings!" It our language would allow it, we might say vanitize vanity.


 
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