New King James Version
Job 9:3
3If one wished to contend with Him, He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.
Job 9:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
- New International Version (NIV)Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand.
- English Standard Version (ESV)If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
- New Living Translation (NLT)If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times?
Context of Job 9:3
1Then Job answered and said: 2“Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with Him, He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. 4God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered? 5He removes the mountains, and they do not know When He overturns them in His anger;
Read all of Job 9Job 9:3 word by word
אִם־יַ֭חְפֹּץ לָרִ֣יב עִמּ֑וֹ לֹֽא־יַ֝עֲנֶ֗נּוּ אַחַ֥ת מִנִּי־אָֽלֶף׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 9:3
- Job 9:20Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse.
- Job 10:2I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Show me why You contend with me.
- Job 23:3Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat!
- Job 31:35Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my mark. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me, That my Prosecutor had written a book!
- Job 33:13Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words.
- Job 34:14If He should set His heart on it, If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath,
- Job 40:2“Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.”
- Isaiah 57:15For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
- Romans 9:20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
- Psalms 19:12Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
- Psalms 40:12For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me.
- 1 John 1:8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- 1 John 3:20For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
Commentaries on Job 9:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3If he will contend with him - God is so holy, and his law so strict, that if he will enter into judgment with his creatures, the most upright of them cannot be justified in his sight. One of a thousand - Of a thousand offenses of which he may be accused he cannot vindicate himself even in one. How little that any man does, even in the way of righteousness, truth, and mercy, can stand the penetrating eye of a just and holy God, when all motives, feelings…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3If he will contend with him - That is, if God enters into a controversy with man. If he chooses to charge crime on him, and to hold him responsible for his deeds. The language here is taken from courts of justice, and means that if a trial were instituted, where God should submit charges, and the matter were left to adjudication, man could not answer the charges against him; compare the notes at Isaiah 41:1. He cannot answer him one of a thousand - For…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3If one wished to contend with God: Job later wished to meet God in court (13:3, 15, 23; 23:4).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. If he--God will contend with him--literally, "deign to enter into judgment." he cannot answer, &c.--He (man) would not dare, even if he had a thousand answers in readiness to one question of God's, to utter one of them, from awe of His Majesty.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 9:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 9
- 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
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries