If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
Parallel Translations
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If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
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If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
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If I had called, and He had answered me; yet would I not believe that He would hearken unto my voice —
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Job 9:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 6:9 Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn’t listen to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
- Judges 6:13 Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
- Job 29:24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.
- Psalms 18:6 In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
- Psalms 66:18-20 If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened. But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his loving kindness from me.
- Psalms 116:1-2 I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy. Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
- Psalms 126:1 When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, we were like those who dream.
- Luke 24:41 While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
- Acts 12:14-16 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she didn’t open the gate for joy, but ran in, and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate. They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” But Peter continued knocking. When they had opened, they saw him, and were amazed.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain While I am in my pangs, I cannot but…
While I am in my pangs, I cannot but burst forth into many inconveniences, although I know still that God is just.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had…
Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me; [yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
Ver. 16. If l had called and he had answered] If, in confidence of mine own righteousness, I had sought some good thing at his hands, and he had therein condescended to me, yet would I not believe that he had, in mercy, hearkened to my voice; but rather, for a further mischief, that he might roll himself upon me, as Joseph upon his brethren, and as God did upon the Israelites after their quails; that he might tear them with his tempest, &c. Some think that Job speaketh these words, as despairing of audience, or denying God’s particular providence; but neither of these is likely. Rather it seemeth, saith Pineda, to be the speech of a mind marvellously cast down, and meanly conceited of himself, and of his prayer; and trusting to the goodness of God alone; so Drusius. Job speaketh not this, saith he, out of diffidence, but out of fear of God’s judgments, and sense of his own imperfections.
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Yet I would not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice] Namely, for any worth that he findeth in it: what am I, poor creature, that I should think I had carried the matter with God?
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 If I had called, i.e. prayed, as this word…
If I had called, i.e. prayed, as this word is commonly used, to wit, unto my Judge, for a favourable sentence, as he now said, and therefore it was needless here to mention the object of his calling or prayer.
Yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice; I could not believe that God had indeed granted my desire, though he had done it; because I am so infinitely below him, and obnoxious to him, and still full of the tokens of his displeasure; and therefore should conclude that it was but a pleasant dream or fancy, and not a real thing: compare Psa 126:1.
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 For he breaketh me with a tempest,.... Which rises…
For he breaketh me with a tempest,.... Which rises suddenly, comes powerfully, and carries all before it irresistibly; hereby signifying the nature of his present sore afflictions, which came upon him at once, pressed him down, and utterly destroyed him, against which there was no standing: perhaps he may have some reference to the storm of wind that blew down the house, by which his children were destroyed. Schultens renders it, "a burning tempest" (s), such as is common in the eastern countries, which Thevenot (t) often makes mention of; which kills a man at once, and his flesh becomes as black as a coal, and comes off of his bones, and is plucked off by the hand that would lift him up; with which a man is broken to pieces indeed, to which Job may allude:
and multiplieth my wounds without cause; referring, it may be, to the many boils and ulcers upon his body; though it may also respect the multiplicity of ways in which he had wounded or afflicted him, in his person, in his family, and in his substance, and which he says was done "without cause"; not without a cause or reason in God, who does nothing without one, though it may not be known to men; particularly in afflicting men, it is not without cause or reason; it he punishes men, it is for sin; if he rebukes and chastises his people, it is for their transgressions; to bring them to a sense of them, to humble them for them, to bring them off from them, or to prevent them, or purge them away, and to try their graces, wean them from the world, and fit them for himself: but Job's afflictions were without any such cause intimated by his friends; it was not hypocrisy, nor any notorious sin or sins he had been guilty of, and secretly lived and indulged himself in, as they imagined. Job here suggests his innocence, which he always insisted upon, and refers his afflictions to the sovereign will of God, and to some hidden cause in his own breast, unknown to himself and others: however, so long as he dealt with him after this manner, he could not believe his prayers were heard by him.
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(s) "in turbine ardenti", Schultens. (t) Travels, par. 2. B. 1. c. 12. p. 54. B. 3. c. 5. p. 135.
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 Yet - I could not believe that God had…
Yet - I could not believe that God had indeed granted my desire, because I am still full of the tokens of his displeasure; and therefore should conclude that it was but a pleasant dream, and not a real thing.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. If I had called, and he had…
Verse 16. If I had called, and he had answered] I could scarcely suppose, such is his majesty and such his holiness, that he could condescend to notice a being so mean, and in every respect so infinitely beneath his notice. These sentiments sufficiently confuted that slander of his friends, who said he was presumptuous, had not becoming notions of the majesty of God, and used blasphemous expressions against his sovereign authority.
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 9:16. If I had called — That is,…
Job 9:16. If I had called — That is, prayed, as the word קראתי, karati, commonly means, namely, unto my judge for a favourable sentence, as he had just said; and he had answered me — Had given me what I asked; yet would I not believe, &c. — So weak and imperfect are my best prayers; and, I am so infinitely below him, so obnoxious to him, and still so full of the tokens of his displeasure, that I would not believe he had done it because I had asked him; or, that it was owing to my prayers, but that he had bestowed the favour purely for his name’s sake. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase is, “If I had made supplication, and he had granted my desire, I would not think my prayer had done the business.”
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 If I had called, and he had answered me…
If I had called, and he had answered me - It is remarked by Schultens, that the expressions in these verses are all taken from courts of justice. If so, the meaning is, that even if Job should call the Almighty to a judicial action, and he should respond to him, and consent to submit the great question about his innocence, and about the justice of the divine dealings with him, to trial, yet that such was the distance between God and him, that he could not hope successfully to contend with him in the argument. He would, therefore, prostrate himself in a suppliant manner, and implore his mercy and compassion - submitting to him as having all power, and as being a just and righteous Sovereign.
Would I not believe - I cannot believe that he would enter into my complaint. He deals with me in a manner so severe; he acts toward me so much as a sovereign, that I have no reason to suppose that he would not continue to act toward me in the same way still.
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 Voice. So much am I beneath his notice. How…
Voice. So much am I beneath his notice. How unjust were the aspersions of Job’s friends, who accused him of presumption and blasphemy! (Calmet) --- No one ever spoke with greater humility (Haydock) and respect of God’s absolute dominion. (Calmet) --- He will attribute nothing to his own prayers, as he is still in the dark. (Menochius)
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 would I not believe that he had hearkened unto…
would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice--who breaketh me (as a tree stripped of its leaves) with a tempest.
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 16. If I had called — From Job_9:12-15 he…
16. If I had called — From Job_9:12-15 he supposes the case that God would take the initiative in summoning to trial; now, that he himself would: Should I summon him, and he answer me, I would hardly believe my senses that there could be such condescension and sense of justice!
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16. In Job_9:14-15 the plea against God is not…
16. In Job_9:14-15 the plea against God is not supposed actually entered upon; the idea of such a plea presents itself to Job’s mind and he pictures the results that would follow upon himself; in Job_9:16 he assumes the plea entered upon, that he had actually cited God, who had appeared, and he describes what would follow at this stage.
if I had called] i. e. cited God as a party in my plea against Him.
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that he had hearkened] Rather, that he would hearken. Had Job with a superhuman courage cited God, and had God appeared, Job would not believe that He would listen to him, cf. Job_9:35, ch. Job_13:21 seq., Job_23:6 seq.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain If I had called, and he had answered me.…
If I had called, and he had answered me. "It," that is, "I had challenged God to a controversy, and he had granted it, and bidden me to plead my cause at his bar, yet could I not suppose that he had really hearkened to me, and would allow me boldly to stand up before him and freely to challenge his doings. Such condescension on his part, such an abnegation of his supremacy, is inconceivable, and! could not have acted on it." Yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice; rather, yet could I not believe. It was not that he would not have wished, but that he would not have been able, to believe.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Yet would I not believe that He had hearkened…
Job_9:16
Yet would I not believe that He had hearkened unto my voice.
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Prerequisites to belief
It is hard to believe in that, some faint earnest of which we do not find in our own souls. A man cannot believe facts which are in the very teeth of his instinctive affinities and dispositions. The head hunters of Borneo would necessarily treat as fables the thousand and one humane institutions which are the products of Christian civilisation. A race of colour-blind barbarians, if such a race existed, would ridicule the idea of finding out the elements of which distant stars are fashioned by observing the bands and lines of colours disclosed by the spectroscope. There must be the beginning of vision in us if we are to receive the fairy tales of the microscopist and the astronomer. God can be made known to us only in these aspects in which we desire, however faintly, to be like Him. (T. G. Selby.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 For he breaks me with a tempest
For he breaks me with a tempest
Job compares his troubles from God to the effects of a tempest. AT: "He injures me as if with a tempest" (See: Metaphor)
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tempest
a powerful or violent storm
multiplies my wounds
"gives me many wounds" or "wounds me again and again"
without cause
"even though I have not given him cause to do so" or "even though I am innocent"
to regain my breath
This is an idiom that means "to be able to breathe again" or (See: Idiom)
he fills me with bitterness
This verse pictures God as filling up Job's life with things that make him bitter. The abstract noun "bitterness" can be expressed as the adjective "bitter." AT: "he fills me up with bitter things" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
call
believe
voice
breath
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.