the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
King James Version
Job 16:18
Bible Study Resources
Dictionaries:
- CharlesEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
"O earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf.
O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no resting place.
O earth, do not cover my blood, And let my cry have no [resting]-place.
"Earth, please do not cover up my blood. Don't let my cry ever stop being heard!
"O earth, do not cover my blood, nor let there be a secret place for my cry.
O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
"Earth, don't cover my blood, Let my cry have no place to rest.
"O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no [resting] place for my cry [where it will cease being heard].
"O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
Erthe, hile thou not my blood, and my cry fynde not in thee a place of hidyng.
O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.
If I should die, I beg the earth not to cover my cry for justice.
O earth, cover not thou my blood, And let my cry have no resting-place.
O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place!
"Earth, don't cover my blood; don't let my cry rest [without being answered].
O earth, cover not my blood, and let there be no place for my cry!
"Earth, don't hide the wrong things that were done to me. Don't let my begging for fairness be stopped.
O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no resting-place.
O earth couer not thou my blood, and let my cry haue no place.
"O earth, do not cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.
"O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place.
O earth, couer not thou my blood, & let my crying finde no place.
O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry have no place!
O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me! Don't let my call for justice be silenced!
O earth! do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for mine outcry.
(16-19) O earth, cover not thou my blood, neither let my cry find a hiding place in thee.
"O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
O earth couer not thou my blood, and let my crying finde no roome.
Yet there was no injustice in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
Earth, do not cover my blood;may my cry for help find no resting place.
"Eretz, don't cover my blood, Let my cry have no place to rest.
"O earth, you should not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my cry for help.
O earth, do not cover my blood, and let not my cry have a place.
O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.
O earth, couer not my bloude, and let my crienge fynde no rowme.
"O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry! There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name— My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God. I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor. "Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return."
"Earth, do not cover my blood, And may there be no resting place for my cry.
"O earth, do not cover my blood, And let my cry have no resting place!
"O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no resting place for my cry.
"O earth, do not cover my blood,And let there be no resting place for my cry.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
O earth: Jeremiah 22:29
cover not: Genesis 4:11, Nehemiah 4:5, Isaiah 26:21, Ezekiel 24:7
let my cry: Job 27:9, Psalms 66:18, Psalms 66:19, Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 58:9, Isaiah 58:10, James 4:3, James 4:4
Reciprocal: Genesis 4:10 - crieth Genesis 37:26 - conceal Leviticus 17:13 - pour out Job 20:27 - earth
Gill's Notes on the Bible
O earth, cover not thou my blood,.... This is an imprecation, wishing that if; he had been guilty of any capital crime, of such acts of injustice that he ought to be punished by the judge, and even to die for them, that his blood when spilt might not be received into the earth, but be licked up by dogs, or that he might have no burial or interment in the earth; and if he had committed such sins as might come under the name of blood, either the shedding of innocent blood, though that is so gross a crime that it can hardly be thought that Job's friends even suspected this of him; or rather other foul sins, as injustice and oppression of the poor; the Tigurine version is, "my capital sins", see Isaiah 1:15; then he wishes they might never be covered and concealed, but disclosed and spread abroad everywhere, that all might know them, and he suffer shame for them; even as the earth discloses the blood of the slain, when inquisition is made for it,
Isaiah 26:21;
and let my cry have no place; meaning if he was the wicked man and the hypocrite he was said to be, or if his prayer was not pure, sincere, and upright, as he said it was, then he desired that when he cried to God, or to man, in his distress, he might be regarded by neither; that his cry might not enter into the ears of the Lord of hosts, but that it might be shut out, and he cover himself with a cloud, that it might not pass through, and have any place with him; land that he might not meet with any pity and compassion from the heart, nor help and relief from the hand of any man.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
O earth - Passionate appeals to the earth are not uncommon in the Scriptures; see the notes at Isaiah 1:2. Such appeals indicate deep emotion, and are among the most animated forms of personification.
Cover not thou my blood - Blood here seems to denote the wrong done to him. He compares his situation with that of one who had been murdered, and calls on the earth not to conceal the crime, and prays that his injuries may not be hidden, or pass unavenged. Aben Ezra, Dr. Good, and some others, however, suppose that he refers to blood shed “by” him, and that the idea is, that he would have the earth reveal any blood if he had ever shed any; or in other words, that it is a strong protestation of his innocence. But the former interpretation seems to accord best with the connection. It is the exclamation of deep feeling. He speaks as a man about to die, but he says that he would die as an innocent and a much injured man, and he passionately prays that his death may not pass unavenged. God had crushed him, and his friends had wronged him, and he now earnestly implores that his character may yet be vindicated. “According to the saying of the Arabs, the blood of one who was unjustly slain remained upon the earth without sinking into it; until the avenger of blood came up. It was regarded as a proof of innocence.” Eichhorn, “in loc” That there is much of irreverence in all this must, I think, be conceded. It is not language for us to imitate. But it is not more irreverent and unbecoming than what often occurs, and it is designed to show what the human heart “will” express when it is allowed to give utterance to its real feelings.
And let my cry have no place - Let it not be hid or concealed. Let there be nothing to hinder my cry from ascending to heaven. The meaning is, that Job wished his solemn protestations of his innocence to go abroad. He desired that all might hear him. He called on the nations and heaven to hear. He appealed to the universe. He desired that the earth would not conceal the proof of his wrongs, and that his cry might not be confined or limited by any bounds, but that it might go abroad so that all worlds might hear.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 16:18. O earth, cover not thou my blood — This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in two different ways:
1. Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His blood is his life, which he considers as taken away by violence, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the earth was not permitted to cover his blood, so that his murderer should be concealed, let my death be avenged in the same way.
2. It has been supposed that the passage means that Job considered himself accused of shedding innocent blood; and, conscious of his own perfect innocence, he prays that the earth may not cover any blood shed by him. Thus Mr. Scott: -
"O earth, the blood accusing me reveal;
Its piercing voice in no recess conceal."
And this notion is followed by Mr. Good. But, with all deference to these learned men, l do not see that this meaning can be supported by the Hebrew text; nor was the passage so understood by any of the ancient versions. I therefore prefer the first sense, which is sufficiently natural, and quite in the manner of Job in his impassioned querulousness.
