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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Job 9:16

Even if I called and he answered, I cannot believe he would listen to me.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Blasphemy;   Doubting;   God;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If I summoned him and he answered me,I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
Hebrew Names Version
If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
King James Version
If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
English Standard Version
If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
New Century Version
If I called to him and he answered, I still don't believe he would listen to me.
New English Translation
If I summoned him, and he answered me, I would not believe that he would be listening to my voice—
Amplified Bible
"If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.
New American Standard Bible
"If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.
World English Bible
If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
Geneva Bible (1587)
If I cry, and he answere me, yet woulde I not beleeue, that he heard my voyce.
Legacy Standard Bible
If I called and He answered me,I could not believe that He was giving ear to my voice.
Berean Standard Bible
If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.
Contemporary English Version
And if God came into court when I called him, he would not hear my case.
Complete Jewish Bible
If I summoned him, and he answered me, I still can't believe he would listen to my plea.
Darby Translation
If I had called, and he had answered me, I would not believe that he hearkened to my voice,—
George Lamsa Translation
If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I would not believe that he had hearkened to my voice.
Good News Translation
Yet even then, if he lets me speak, I can't believe he would listen to me.
Lexham English Bible
If I summon him, and he should answer me, I do not believe that he will listen to my voice—
Literal Translation
If I had called and He had answered me; I would not believe that He had listened to my voice;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
All be it that I call vpon him, and he heare me, yet am I not sure, yt he hath herde my voyce:
American Standard Version
If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he hearkened unto my voice.
Bible in Basic English
If I had sent for him to be present, and he had come, I would have no faith that he would give ear to my voice.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If I had called, and He had answered me; yet would I not believe that He would hearken unto my voice--
King James Version (1611)
If I had called, and had answered me, yet would I not beleeue that he had hearkened vnto my voice:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
If I had called vpon hym, and he had aunswered me, yet woulde I not beleue that he hearde my voyce:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice.
English Revised Version
If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he hearkened unto my voice.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And whanne he hath herd me inwardli clepynge, Y bileue not, that he hath herd my vois.
Update Bible Version
If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet I would not believe that he listened to my voice.
Webster's Bible Translation
If I had called, and he had answered me; [yet] I would not believe that he had hearkened to my voice.
New King James Version
If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.
New Living Translation
And even if I summoned him and he responded, I'm not sure he would listen to me.
New Life Bible
If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.
New Revised Standard
If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Though I had called, and he had answered me, I could not believe, that he would lend an ear to my voice.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And if he should hear me when I call, I should not believe that he had heard my voice.
Revised Standard Version
If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
Young's Literal Translation
Though I had called and He answereth me, I do not believe that He giveth ear [to] my voice.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.

Contextual Overview

14 So I cannot argue with God. I would not know what to say to him. 15 I am innocent, but I cannot give him an answer. All I can do is beg my Judge for mercy. 16 Even if I called and he answered, I cannot believe he would listen to me. 17 He would just send storms to crush me. He would give me more wounds for no reason. 18 He would not let me catch my breath again. He would just give me more trouble. 19 I cannot defeat God. He is too powerful! I cannot take him to court for justice. Who could force him to come? 20 I am innocent, but anything I say makes me seem guilty. I am innocent, but if I speak, my mouth proves me wrong. 21 I am innocent, but I don't know what to think. I hate my own life.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If I had: Psalms 18:6, Psalms 66:18-20, Psalms 116:1, Psalms 116:2

would I: Job 29:24, Exodus 6:9, Judges 6:13, Psalms 126:1, Luke 24:41, Acts 12:14-16

Reciprocal: Genesis 45:26 - he believed Job 15:22 - He believeth not Job 39:24 - neither Song of Solomon 2:14 - that art Mark 16:11 - believed Luke 24:11 - idle John 20:25 - Except Acts 12:15 - Thou

Cross-References

Genesis 9:3
In the past, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now every animal will also be food for you. I give you everything on earth—it is yours.
Genesis 9:4
But I give you one command. You must not eat meat that still has its life (blood) in it.
Genesis 9:8
Then God said to Noah and his sons,
Genesis 9:9
"I now make my promise to you and to your people who will live after you.
Genesis 9:10
I make my promise to all the birds, and to all the cattle, and to all the animals that came out of the boat with you. I make my promise to every living thing on earth.
Genesis 9:11
This is my promise to you: All life on the earth was destroyed by the flood. But that will never happen again. A flood will never again destroy all life on the earth."
Genesis 9:21
One day Noah made some wine. He got drunk, went into his tent, and took off all his clothes.
Genesis 9:22
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his brothers who were outside the tent.
Genesis 17:7
And I will prepare an agreement between me and you. This agreement will also be for all your descendants. It will continue forever. I will be your God and the God of all your descendants.
Genesis 17:13
So every baby boy in your nation will be circumcised. Every boy who is born from your family or bought as a slave will be circumcised.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If I had called, and he had answered me,.... Mr. Broughton reads the words, "if I cry, will he answer me?" as if Job had some doubt upon his mind whether God would vouchsafe to answer him, though he should make his supplication to him, as he proposed; seeing he had so sorely afflicted him, and still continued his hand upon him; or the words may be rendered, "though I have called, and he has answered" q, in times past. Job was a praying person, he had often prayed to God in his closet, and in his family, for himself, and for his children, and for his friends, and he had found God to be a God hearing and answering prayer, but seems to question whether he would answer him now, if he did pray to him:

[yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice, or "would hearken" r, at this time, and under the present circumstances; or should he, the mercy would be so great, that he could hardly believe it; so sometimes through joy men cannot believe what they hear and see, as the apostles, when Christ appeared to them after his resurrection; or as it was with the Jews returned from Babylon, they were like them that dream, they could scarcely tell whether their deliverance was a real fact, or whether they only dreamed of it, see Luke 24:41; so Job intimates, that should he pray to God, and be heard and delivered, it would be so astonishing and transporting, that at first he should not be able to give credit to it; or, however, he should not believe that it was for his prayers and supplications, for any worth and value, virtue and efficacy, there was in them, that he was heard; but it must be purely for his mercy's sake, for the sake of the mediation of Christ, and because these prayers were the breathings of his own spirit: or else the sense is, that though he had heard and answered him formerly, when he prayed in a supplicating way, yet if he should contend with him in a judicial way, and insist upon his own righteousness, and present his supplication to God on that account, he could never expect to be heard; and, indeed, he could not believe he should be heard on any account, so long as his present sufferings lasted; which seems to be the sense of what follows, where he gives his reasons for such belief, or rather unbelief.

q אם קראתי ויענני "etiamsi clamavi et respondit mihi", Schmidt. r כי יאזין "quod exauditurus esset", Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 9:16. 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.


 
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