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King James Version

Job 20:2

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- The Topic Concordance - Happiness/joy;   Hypocrisy;   Oppression;   Perishing;   Victory/overcoming;   Wickedness;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Haste;   Reason;   Zophar;  

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
"I must reply because I am greatly disturbed.
English Revised Version
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.
Update Bible Version
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
New Century Version
"My troubled thoughts cause me to answer, because I am very upset.
New English Translation
"This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back— because of my feelings within me.
Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for [this] I make haste.
World English Bible
"Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
Amplified Bible
"Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me answer, Because of the uneasiness that is within me.
English Standard Version
"Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor my thouytis dyuerse comen oon aftir anothir; and the mynde is rauyischid in to dyuerse thingis.
Berean Standard Bible
"So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me.
Contemporary English Version
Your words are disturbing; now I must speak.
American Standard Version
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
Bible in Basic English
For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.
Complete Jewish Bible
"My thoughts are pressing me to answer; I feel such an urge to speak!
Darby Translation
Therefore do my thoughts give me an answer, and for this is my haste within me.
Easy-to-Read Version
"You upset me, so I must answer you. I must tell you what I am thinking.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of mine agitation that is in me.
King James Version (1611)
Therefore doe my thoughts cause mee to answere, and for this I make haste.
New Life Bible
"My troubled thoughts make me answer, because I have no rest inside.
New Revised Standard
"Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer, because of the agitation within me.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Doubtles my thoughts cause me to answere, and therefore I make haste.
George Lamsa Translation
Therefore my discipline has caused me to discern, and for my help it has remained with me.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Not so, do my thoughts answer me, and to this end, is my haste within me:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things.
Revised Standard Version
"Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For the same cause do my thoughtes compell me to aunswere, and therefore, make haste.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I did not suppose that thou wouldest answer thus: neither do ye understand more than I.
Christian Standard Bible®
This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer,because I am upset!
Hebrew Names Version
"Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
Lexham English Bible
"Therefore my disquieting thoughts bring me back for the sake of my inward excitement.
Literal Translation
So my thoughts cause me to answer, even because of my haste in me.
Young's Literal Translation
Therefore my thoughts cause me to answer, And because of my sensations in me.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For the same cause do my thoughtes compell me to answere. And why? my mynde is tossed here and there.
New American Standard Bible
"Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond, Even because of my inward agitation.
New King James Version
"Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, Because of the turmoil within me.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond, Even because of my inward agitation.
Legacy Standard Bible
"Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond,Even because of my haste within me.

Contextual Overview

1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, 2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. 3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. 4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, 5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? 6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; 7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? 8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. 9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my thoughts: Job 20:3, Job 4:2, Job 13:19, Job 32:13-20, Psalms 39:2, Psalms 39:3, Jeremiah 20:9, Romans 10:2

and for: Psalms 31:22, Psalms 116:11, Proverbs 14:29, Proverbs 29:20, Ecclesiastes 7:9, Mark 6:25, James 1:19

I make haste: Heb. my haste is in me

Reciprocal: Job 32:20 - I will speak

Cross-References

Genesis 12:15
The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
Genesis 20:11
And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.
Genesis 20:12
And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Genesis 20:13
And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
Genesis 26:1
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
Genesis 26:7
And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
Genesis 26:16
And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
2 Chronicles 19:2
And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord ? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord .
2 Chronicles 20:37
Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
2 Chronicles 32:31
Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,.... Or "to return" a and appear upon the stage again, and enter the lists once more with his antagonist; he suggests as if he had intended to have said no more in this controversy, but observing what Job had said last, could not forbear replying: "therefore" because he had represented him and his friends as cruel persecutors of him, as men devoid of all humanity, pity, and compassion, and endeavoured to terrify them with the punishments of the sword, and the judgment of God to come; these occasioned many "thoughts" in him, and those thoughts obliged him to give an answer; they came in so thick and fast upon him, that out of the abundance, his heart suggested to him he could not but speak, he was full of matter, and the spirit within him, the impulse upon his mind, constrained him to make a reply; and he seems desirous of having it understood that his answer proceeded from thought; that he did not speak without thinking, but had well weighed things in his mind; and what he was about to say was the fruit of close thinking and mature deliberation:

and for [this] I make haste; because his thoughts crowded in upon him, he had a fulness of matter, an impulse of mind, promptitude and readiness to speak on this occasion, and for fear of losing what was suggested to him, he made haste to give in his answer, perhaps observing some other of his friends rising up before him. The Targum is,

"because my sense is in me;''

and so other Jewish writers b; be apprehended he had a right sense of things, and understood the matter in controversy full well, and therefore thought it incumbent on him to speak once more in it: Gussetius c renders it, "because of my disquietude"; the uneasiness of his mind raised by what Job had said, that he would have them know and consider there was a judgment; and he intimates he had considered it, and was fearful that should he be silent, and make no reply, God would condemn him in judgment for his silence; and therefore he was in a hurry to make answer, and could not be easy without it; and for his reasons for so doing he further explains himself in Job 20:3.

a ישיבוני "reducunt me, q. d. in scenam"; Cocceius, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius. b Ben Gersom, Bar Tzemach, Sephorno and so Montanus. c Ebr. Comment. p. 246.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore - לכן lākên, “certainly, truly.” In view of what has been just said. Or perhaps the word means merely certainly, truly.

Do my thoughts cause me to answer - This is variously rendered. The Vulgate renders it, Idcirco cogitationes meae variae succedunt sibi, et mens in diversa rapitur - “Therefore my various thoughts follow in succession, and the mind is distracted.” The Septuagint, “I did not suppose that thou wouldst speak against these things, and you do not understand more than I.” How this was ever made from the Hebrew it is impossible to say. On the word “thoughts,” see the notes at Job 4:13. The word denotes thoughts which divide and distract the mind; not calm and collected reflections, but those which disturb, disconcert, and trouble. He acknowledges that it was not calm reflection which induced him to reply, but the agitating emotions produced by the speech of Job. The word rendered “cause me to answer” (ישׁיבוּני yeshı̂ybûnı̂y), “cause me to return” - and Jerome understood it as meaning that his thoughts returned upon him in quick and troublesome succession, and says in his Commentary on Job, that the meaning is, “I am troubled and agitated because you say that you sustain these evils from God without cause, when nothing evil ought to be suspected of God.”

And for this I make haste - Margin, “my haste is in me.” The meaning is, “the impetuosity of my feelings urges me on. I reply on account of the agitation of my soul, which will admit of no delay.” His heart was full, and he hastened to give vent to his feelings in impassioned and earnest language.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 20:2. Therefore do my thoughts — It has already been observed that Zophar was the most inveterate of all Job's enemies, for we really must cease to call them friends. He sets no bounds to his invective, and outrages every rule of charity. A man of such a bitter spirit must have been, in general, very unhappy. With him Job is, by insinuation, every thing that is base, vile, and hypocritical. Mr. Good translates this verse thus: "Whither would my tumult transport me? And how far my agitation within me?" This is all the modesty that appears in Zophar's discourse. He acknowledges that he is pressed by the impetuosity of his spirit to reply to Job's self-vindication. The original is variously translated, but the sense is as above.

For this I make haste. — ובעבור חושי בי ubaabur chushi bi, there is sensibility in me, and my feelings provoke me to reply.


 
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