New English Translation
Job 34:3
3For the ear assesses words as the mouth tastes food.
Job 34:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.
- New International Version (NIV)For the ear tests words as the tongue tastes food.
- English Standard Version (ESV)for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For the ear tests words As the palate tastes food.
Context of Job 34:3
1Elihu answered: 2“Listen to my words, you wise men; hear me, you learned men. For the ear assesses words as the mouth tastes food. 4Let us evaluate for ourselves what is right; let us come to know among ourselves what is good. 5For Job says, ‘I am innocent, but God turns away my right.
Read all of Job 34Job 34:3 word by word
כִּי־אֹ֭זֶן מִלִּ֣ין תִּבְחָ֑ן וְ֝חֵ֗ךְ יִטְעַ֥ם לֶאֱכֹֽל׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 34:3
- Job 6:30Is there any falsehood on my lips? Can my mouth not discern evil things?
- Job 12:11Does not the ear test words, as the tongue tastes food?
- 1 Corinthians 2:15The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one.
- Hebrews 5:14But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.
- Job 31:30I have not even permitted my mouth to sin by asking for his life through a curse –
- Job 33:2See now, I have opened my mouth; my tongue in my mouth has spoken.
Commentaries on Job 34:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3The ear trieth words - I do not think, with Calmet, that the inward ear, or judgment, is meant simply. The Asiatics valued themselves on the nice and harmonious collection of words, both in speaking and in writing; and perhaps it will be found here that Elihu labors as much for harmonious versification as for pious and weighty sentiments. To connect sense with sound was an object of general pursuit among the Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian poets; and so fond…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3For the ear trieth words - Ascertains their meaning, and especially determines what words are worth regarding. The object of this is, to fix the attention on what he was about to say; to get the ear so that every word should make its proper impression. The word ear in this place, however, seems not to be used to denote the external organ, but the whole faculty of hearing. It is by hearing that the meaning of what is said is determined, as it is by the…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3-4ear tests … mouth tastes: Elihu repeated Job’s earlier complaint about the other counselors’ weak argument that, "Wisdom is found with the elderly" (12:11–12; see 6:30; Hebrews 5:14).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. palate--(See on Job 12:11; Job 33:2).Read the comment
Topics related to Job 34:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 34
- 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
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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