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Monday, August 25th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

King James Version (1611 Edition)

Job 11:5

But, O that God would speake, and open his lippes against thee,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Self-Righteousness;   Uncharitableness;   Wisdom;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Zophar;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Lip;   Holman Bible Dictionary - God;   Job, the Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Job, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But if only God would speakand open his lips against you!
Hebrew Names Version
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,
King James Version
But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
English Standard Version
But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you,
New Century Version
I wish God would speak and open his lips against you
New English Translation
But if only God would speak, if only he would open his lips against you,
Amplified Bible
"But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips [to speak] against you,
New American Standard Bible
"But if only God would speak, And open His lips against you,
World English Bible
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,
Geneva Bible (1587)
But, oh that God would speake and open his lippes against thee!
Legacy Standard Bible
But would that God might speak,And open His lips against you,
Berean Standard Bible
But if only God would speak and open His lips against you,
Contemporary English Version
But I wish he would speak
Complete Jewish Bible
I wish that God would speak, would open his mouth to answer you,
Darby Translation
But oh that +God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
Easy-to-Read Version
I wish God would answer you and tell you that you are wrong.
George Lamsa Translation
But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you;
Good News Translation
How I wish God would answer you!
Lexham English Bible
But, O that God might speak, and that he would open his lips to you,
Literal Translation
But who will grant that God would speak and open His lips against you,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
O that God wolde speake, and open his lippes agaynst the,
American Standard Version
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against thee,
Bible in Basic English
But if only God would take up the word, opening his lips in argument with you;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against thee;
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But O that God woulde speake, and open his lippes against thee:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But oh that the Lord would speak to thee, and open his lips to thee!
English Revised Version
But Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And `Y wolde, that God spak with thee, and openyde hise lippis to thee;
Update Bible Version
But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,
Webster's Bible Translation
But Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
New King James Version
But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips against you,
New Living Translation
If only God would speak; if only he would tell you what he thinks!
New Life Bible
If only God would speak, and open His lips against you.
New Revised Standard
But O that God would speak, and open his lips to you,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, in very deed, oh that GOD would speak, that he would open his lips with thee:
Douay-Rheims Bible
And I wish that God would speak with thee, and would open his lips to thee,
Revised Standard Version
But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips to you,
Young's Literal Translation
And yet, O that God had spoken! And doth open His lips with thee.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But would that God might speak, And open His lips against you,

Contextual Overview

1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, 2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should man ful of talke be iustified? 3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed? 4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am cleane in thine eyes. 5 But, O that God would speake, and open his lippes against thee, 6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisedome, that they are double to that which is: know therefore that God exacteth of thee lesse then thine iniquitie deserueth.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 23:3-7, Job 31:35, Job 33:6-18, Job 38:1, Job 38:2, Job 40:1-5, Job 40:8, Job 42:7

Reciprocal: Job 9:14 - shall I Job 13:3 - Surely

Cross-References

Genesis 11:13
And Arphaxad liued, after he begate Salah, foure hundred and three yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters.
Genesis 11:14
And Salah liued thirtie yeeres, and begate Eber.
Genesis 11:23
And Serug liued, after he begate Nahor, two hundred yeeres, and begat sonnes and daughters.
Genesis 11:24
And Nahor liued nine and twentie yeeres, and begate Terah.
Genesis 18:21
I will goe downe now, and see whether they haue done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come vnto me: and if not, I will know.
Exodus 3:8
And I am come downe to deliuer them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them vp out of that land, vnto a good land and a large, vnto a lande flowing with milke and hony, vnto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hiuites, and the Iebusites.
Exodus 19:11
And be ready against the thirde day: for the third day the Lord will come downe in the sight of all the people, vpon mount Sinai.
Exodus 19:18
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended vpon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exodus 19:20
And the Lord came downe vpon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses vp to the top of the mount, and Moses went vp.
Psalms 11:4
The Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lords Throne is in heauen: his eyes beholde, his eye lids trie the children of men.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But O that God would speak,.... To Job, and stop his mouth, so full of words; convict him of his lies, reprove him for his mocks and scoffs, and make him ashamed of them; refute his false doctrine and oppose it, and show him his folly and vanity in imagining it to be pure, and in conceit thinking himself to be free from sin, and even in the sight of God himself: Zophar seems by this wish to suggest, that what his friends had as yet spoke had had no effect upon Job, and signified nothing; and that he despaired of bringing him to any true sense of himself and his case, but that God only could do it; and therefore he entreats he would take him in hand, and speak unto him; as he had by his providences in afflicting him, so by his spirit in teaching and instructing him; and he adds:

and open his lips against thee; or rather, "with thee", or "to thee" a; converse with thee; speak out his mind freely; disclose the secrets of his wisdom, as in Job 11:6, and that for thy good; fully convince thee of thy sins, mistakes, and follies: for, notwithstanding all the heat and warmth of Zophar's spirit, yet, being a good man, as it cannot be thought he should wilfully and knowingly slander Job, and put a false gloss on his words, so neither could he desire any hurt or injury to be done him, or that God would deal with him as an enemy; only convince and reprove him for his sin, and justify himself and his own conduct, which he imagined Job had arraigned.

a עמך μετα σου, Sept. "tecum", Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis; "tibi", V. L. "ad te", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But oh that God would speak - Hebrew, “and truly, who will give that God should speak.” It is the expression of an earnest wish that God would address him, and bring him to a proper sense of his ill desert. The meaning is, that if God should speak to him he would by no means find himself so holy as he now claimed to be.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 11:5. But O that God would speak — How little feeling, humanity, and charity is there in this prayer!


 
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