Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.
Parallel Translations
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Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.
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Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
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Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Job 35:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 15:29 Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
- Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
- Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them.
- James 4:3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
- Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Job 22:22-27 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents. Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you. For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.
- Job 27:8-9 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
- Job 30:20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.
- Psalms 102:17 He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.
- Proverbs 28:9 He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
- Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil. Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words.
- Hosea 7:14 They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.
- Hosea 8:2-3 They cry to me, ‘My God, we Israel acknowledge you!’ Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him.
- Amos 5:22 Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.
- Matthew 6:7 In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.
- Matthew 20:21-22 He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to him, “We are able.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 35:13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither…
Job 35:13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
Ver. 13. Surely God will not hear vanity] Prayer without faith is but an empty ring, a tinkling cymbal. Neque enim omnes qui citharam habent, sunt citharaedi, Every sound is not music, neither is every complaint and outcry of men in extremity an effectual prayer. Those in Hosea, when pined almost, howled as dogs, growled as swine, bellowed as bulls, screeched horribly as the ravens of Arabia, Hos 7:14, but because they cried not to God with their hearts he heard them not. It is not the labour of the lips or the loudness of the voice, but the travail of the heart, and truth in the inward parts, that he regardeth, Psa 51:6. Wilt thou not know, O vain (or empty) man, that faith without works is dead? saith St James, Jas 2:20; so that prayer without faith is to no purpose. Men may cry aloud in distress, and make their voices to be heard on high; they may chatter out a charm when God’s chastening is upon them, yea, be with child, as it were, of a prayer, yet bring forth nothing better than wind, work no deliverance at all in the earth, Isa 26:16-18. God may turn them off, and justly, with, Depart, ye workers of iniquity; get you to the gods whom ye have chosen, let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation; for I will deliver you no more, Jdg 10:13-14.
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Neither will the Almighty regard it] Heb. Look intently into it. It is other and better fruit of affliction that he looketh for. Whereof missing, he looketh another way, as it were, and taketh no notice of their prayers or pressures. Hence they deny, or at least doubt, the Divine providence; and are ready to let fly at God, as the Chinese whip their gods if they help them not at a call.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain 1. Vain and light persons, that have no true…
Either,
1. Vain and light persons, that have no true wisdom or solid piety in them, but are wholly addicted to vain and worldly things, rejoicing immoderately when they have them, and crying out for want of them, as here they do. Or,
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2. Vain cries, which proceed not from faith or piety, but only from self-love and a natural sense of their misery; which is common to them with brute beasts. The abstract is here put for the concrete, as wickedness is oft put for wicked men, and pride for proud persons, and the like.
Neither will the Almighty regard it: though God be able to help them, as this title of God implies, and though he be the Judge of the world, as the former name of God signifies, to whom therefore it belongs to right the oppressed against the oppressor, yet in this case he justly refuseth to help them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Surely God will not hear vanity,.... Or "a lie"…
Surely God will not hear vanity,.... Or "a lie" (z), than which nothing is more an abomination to him; if men come to him with a lie in their mouths, they cannot expect to be heard by him; he is only nigh to those who call upon him in truth: or that which is "rash" (a); which is rashly uttered, and in a passionate wrathful manner, savouring of a revengeful spirit, too often the case of those that cry under oppression; see Ecc 5:2; or vain and empty prayers, a speech of vanity, as Aben Ezra; which as to the matter of them are about vain and empty things; only for outward mercies, worldly goods; and not for spiritual mercies, or such things as are according to the will of God; but what are pleasing to the flesh, and sought for to consume on the lusts of it, and therefore such prayers are not heard, Psa 4:6; and as to the manner of them, they are not put up in the name of Christ, nor under the influence of the spirit of Christ, nor in the exercise of any grace, nor with reverence of God, nor with sincerity of soul, not in faith, nor with fervency: or "vanity" is put for vain men, as sin for sinners; such as are proud men, and are vainly puffed up in their fleshly mind. God hears humble penitent sinners, who find mercy with him; and humble saints, to whom he gives more grace; but not proud Pharisees, or men not humbled by afflictions; see Luk 18:11; nor light and empty persons, who are without God and Christ, destitute of the spirit, devoid of all grace, and full of all unrighteousness; unstable ones, who are vanity itself, and lighter than vanity, tossed to and fro like a wave of the sea, and double minded, Jam 1:6; nor men of vain conversations, that walk in the vanity of their minds, whose words are vain, and especially such as take the name of God in vain; and all whose actions are vain, or such that live a vain and sinful course of life; God hears not sinners, Joh 9:31;
neither will the Almighty regard it; vanity, vain prayers and vain persons; he regards the prayer of the destitute, the lowly, and the humble, but not the prayer of such as before described; he cannot "look" at, it (b), nor at them: he looks to the poor and contrite, and desires to see their countenance and hear their voice in prayer; but he is of purer eyes thou to look on vain persons and their vain prayers; and a greater contempt cannot be shown to petitioners and their petitions than when those to whom they apply will not so much as look at them, but turn both a deaf ear to them, and their eyes away from them.
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(z) "falsitatem", Beza; "mendacium", Pagninus, Montanus. (a) "Quod temerarium est", Cocceius. (b) "non intuatur illud", Pagninus, Montanus; "non videt illud", Cocceius; so Michaelis and Schultens.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Vanity - Vain persons, that have no wisdom or…
Vanity - Vain persons, that have no wisdom or piety in them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Surely God will not hear vanity] He…
Verse 13. Surely God will not hear vanity] He will not attend to such vain cries; they cry from their oppressions, but they cry not to God.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 35:13. Surely God will not hear vanity —…
Job 35:13. Surely God will not hear vanity — Either, 1st, Vain and light persons, that have no true wisdom nor solid piety in them: but are wholly addicted to vain and worldly things, rejoicing immoderately when they have them, and crying out in distress when they have them not. Or, 2d, Vain cries; which proceed not from true penitence, faith, or piety, but only from self-love, and such a sense of misery as is common to men with brute beasts. Neither will the Almighty regard it — Though God be able to help them, as this title of God, the Almighty, implies; and though he be the Judge of the world, as the former name of God, אל, eel, signifies, to whom therefore it belongs to right the oppressed against the oppressor; yet, in this case, he justly refuseth to help them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Surely God will not hear vanity - A vain,…
Surely God will not hear vanity - A vain, hollow, heartless petition. The object of Elihu here is to account for the reason why sufferers are not relieved - having his eye, doubtless, on the case of Job as one of the most remarkable of the kind. The solution which he here gives of the difficulty is, that it is not consistent for God to hear a prayer where there is no sincerity. Of the “truth” of the remark there can be no doubt, but he seems to have taken it for granted that all prayers offered by unrelieved sufferers are thus insincere and hollow. This was needfull in his view to account for the fact under consideration, and this he “assumes” as being unquestionable. Yet the very point indispensable to make out his case was, that “in fact” the prayers offered by such persons were insincere.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Vain. Hebrew, "falsehood." He will not relieve the hypocrite,…
Vain. Hebrew, "falsehood." He will not relieve the hypocrite, who does not cry to him with sincerity. This conduct shews that God acts with discretion, and hears people according to their deserts. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain vanity--that is, cries uttered in an unhumbled spirit, Job…
vanity--that is, cries uttered in an unhumbled spirit, Job 35:12, which applies in some degree to Job's cries; still more to those of the wicked (Job 27:9; Pro 15:29).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. Vanity — That is, a vain and empty…
13. Vanity — That is, a vain and empty cry, one that has no spiritual element.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) God will not hear vanity.—Some understand this as…
(13) God will not hear vanity.—Some understand this as part of the cry in Job_35:12 : “Seeing it is all in vain, God doth not hear, neither doth the Almighty regard it.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Surely God will not hear vanity. God will not…
Surely God will not hear vanity. God will not hear prayers that are rendered "vain" by sin or defect in those who offer them, as by a want of faith, piety, humility, or resignation. Neither will the Almighty regard any such petitions.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.