God’s Word Translation
Job 42:5
5I had heard about you with my own ears, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
Job 42:5 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
- New International Version (NIV)My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
- English Standard Version (ESV)I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
- New King James Version (NKJV)“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.
Context of Job 42:5
3“⌞You said,⌟ ‘Who is this that belittles my advice without having any knowledge ⌞about it⌟?’ Yes, I have stated things I didn’t understand, things too mysterious for me to know. 4“⌞You said,⌟ ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will ask you, and you will teach me.’ I had heard about you with my own ears, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. 6That is why I take back what I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show that I am sorry.” 7After the Lord had said those things to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz from Teman, “I’m very angry with you and your two friends because you didn’t speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done.
Read all of Job 42Job 42:5 word by word
לְשֵֽׁמַע־אֹ֥זֶן שְׁמַעְתִּ֑יךָ וְ֝עַתָּ֗ה עֵינִ֥י רָאָֽתְךָ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 42:5
- Job 4:12“I was told something secretly and heard something whispered in my ear.
- Job 28:22Decay and Death say, ‘We’ve heard a rumor about it.’
- Job 33:16he opens people’s ears and terrifies them with warnings.
- Romans 10:17So faith comes from hearing the message, and the message that is heard is what Christ spoke.
- Job 23:8However, if I go east, he isn’t there. If I go west, I can’t find him.
- Numbers 12:6He said, “Listen to my words: When there are prophets of the Lord among you, I make myself known to them in visions or speak to them in dreams.
- Isaiah 6:1In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. The bottom of his robe filled the temple.
- John 1:18No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known.
- John 12:41Isaiah said this because he had seen Jesus’ glory and had spoken about him.
- Acts 7:55But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked into heaven, saw God’s glory, and Jesus in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.
Commentaries on Job 42:5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 5I have heard of thee - I have now such a discovery of thee as I have never had before. I have only heard of thee by tradition, or from imperfect information; now the eye of my mind clearly perceives thee, and in seeing thee, I see myself; for the light that discovers thy glory and excellence, discovers my meanness and vileness.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 5I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear - Referring to the indistinct views which we have of anything by merely hearing of it, compared with the clear apprehension which is furnished by sight. Job had had such views of God as one may obtain by being told of him; he now had such views as are furnished by the sight. The meaning is, that his views of God before were dark and obscure. But now mine eye seeth thee - We are not to suppose that Job means…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 5now my eyes have seen You: Before this, Job had not seen God (see 23:8). Now, like the prophet Isaiah, he has been in God's presence and feels overwhelmed by how holy God is (Isaiah 6:1).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 55. hearing of the ear--(Psa 18:44, Margin). Hearing and seeing are often in antithesis (Job 29:11; Psa 18:8). seeth--not God's face (Ex 33:20), but His presence in the veil of a dark cloud (Job 38:1). Job implies also that, besides this literal seeing, he now saw spiritually what he had indistinctly taken on hearsay before God's infinite wisdom. He "now" proves this; he had seen in a literal sense before, at the beginning of God's speech, but he had not…Read the comment
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In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 42
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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