Lectionary Calendar
Friday, September 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Job 35:5

Gaze at the heavens and see; consider the clouds, which are higher than you!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   Man;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Cloud, Cloud of the Lord;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Heaven;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Guilt;   Job, the Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Elihu;   Heaven;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Sky;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Cloud;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Look at the heavens and see;gaze at the clouds high above you.
Hebrew Names Version
Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
King James Version
Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
English Standard Version
Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
New Century Version
Look up at the sky and see the clouds so high above you.
Amplified Bible
"Look to the heavens and see; And behold the skies which are [much] higher than you.
New American Standard Bible
"Look at the heavens and see; And look at the clouds—they are higher than you.
World English Bible
Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Looke vnto the heauen, and see and behold the cloudes which are hyer then thou.
Legacy Standard Bible
Look at the heavens and see;And perceive the clouds—they are higher than you.
Berean Standard Bible
Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.
Contemporary English Version
Look up to the heavens
Complete Jewish Bible
Look at the heavens and see; observe the skies, high above you.
Darby Translation
Look unto the heavens and see; and survey the skies: they are higher than thou.
Easy-to-Read Version
Look up at the sky. Look at the clouds, which are so much higher than you.
George Lamsa Translation
Look to the heavens, and observe the clouds which are higher than you.
Good News Translation
Look at the sky! See how high the clouds are!
Lexham English Bible
"Look at the heavens, and see; and observe the clouds that are higher than you.
Literal Translation
Observe the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, they are higher than you.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
loke vnto the heaue, & beholde it: cosidre ye cloudes, how they are hyer then thou.
American Standard Version
Look unto the heavens, and see; And behold the skies, which are higher than thou.
Bible in Basic English
Let your eyes be turned to the heavens, and lifted up to see the skies; they are higher than you.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the skies, which are higher than thou.
King James Version (1611)
Looke vnto the heauens and see, and behold the clouds which are higher then thou.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Loke vnto the heauen and beholde it, consider the cloudes which are hyer then thou.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If thou hast sinned, what wilt thou do?
English Revised Version
Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the skies, which are higher than thou.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Se thou, and biholde heuene, and biholde thou the eir, that God is hiyere than thou.
Update Bible Version
Look to the heavens, and see; And look at the skies, which are higher than you.
Webster's Bible Translation
Look to the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds [which] are higher than thou.
New King James Version
Look to the heavens and see; And behold the clouds-- They are higher than you.
New Living Translation
Look up into the sky, and see the clouds high above you.
New Life Bible
Look at the heavens and see. See the clouds which are higher than you.
New Revised Standard
Look at the heavens and see; observe the clouds, which are higher than you.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Look at the heavens and see, - and survey the skies - they are higher than thou.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Look up to heaven and see, and behold the sky, that it is higher than thee.
Revised Standard Version
Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
Young's Literal Translation
Behold attentively the heavens -- and see, And behold the clouds, They have been higher than thou.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Look at the heavens and see; And behold the clouds—they are higher than you.

Contextual Overview

1 Then Elihu answered: 2 "Do you think this to be just: when you say, ‘My right before God.' 3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,' and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?' 4 I will reply to you, and to your friends with you. 5 Gaze at the heavens and see; consider the clouds, which are higher than you! 6 If you sin, how does it affect God? If your transgressions are many, what does it do to him? 7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God, or what does he receive from your hand? 8 Your wickedness affects only a person like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Look: Job 22:12, Job 25:5, Job 25:6, Job 36:26-33, Job 37:1-5, Job 37:22, Job 37:23, 1 Kings 8:27, Psalms 8:3, Psalms 8:4, Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah 40:23, Isaiah 55:9

the clouds: Job 36:29, Job 37:16, Nahum 1:3

Reciprocal: Job 9:32 - not a man Job 11:8 - It is as high as heaven Proverbs 14:21 - that despiseth

Cross-References

Genesis 34:30
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought ruin on me by making me a foul odor among the inhabitants of the land—among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!"
Genesis 35:9
God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.
Genesis 35:11
Then God said to him, "I am the sovereign God. Be fruitful and multiply! A nation—even a company of nations—will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants!
Genesis 35:15
Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Bethel.
Genesis 35:16
They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor—and her labor was hard.
Exodus 23:27
"I will send my terror before you, and I will destroy all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
Exodus 34:24
For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one will covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
Deuteronomy 11:25
Nobody will be able to resist you; the Lord your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.
Joshua 5:1
When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites.
1 Samuel 11:7
He took a pair of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, "Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!" Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Look unto the heavens, and see,.... The firmament of heaven, in which are the sun and moon and stars:

and behold the clouds [which] are higher than thou; the clouds of the air or sky, which are lower than the starry heavens, yet these were higher than Job, and much more the starry heavens: but because the word has the signification of "thinness", which does not so well agree with the clouds, which are thick substances, condensed air; some take it to be meant of the supreme region of the heavens, which is pure and thin; so Sephorno: and Job is directed to look to these, not as stargazers do, such as are given to judicial astrology, to judge of the fates of men and kingdoms; but rather thereby to be led to the contemplation of God the author of them, and the glorious perfections of his being they display; and chiefly to observe the height of them, that they were out of his reach, and he could neither help them nor hurt them; that he could neither increase nor diminish the light of the celestial bodies, which he could only behold; nor either advance or hinder their course, nor in the least add to or abate their influence and efficacy; and if he could neither be beneficial nor harmful to them, how was it possible that he could be of any advantage or detriment to God, by any actions of his, good or bad, who is higher and out of sight? This is the answer Elihu in general returned, he more particularly replies as follows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Look unto the heavens, and see - This is the commencement of the reply which Elihu makes to the sentiment which he had understood Job to advance, and which Eliphaz had proposed formerly to examine. The general object of the reply is, to show that God is so great that he cannot be affected with human conduct, and that he has no interest in treating people otherwise than according to character. He is so exalted that their conduct cannot reach and affect his happiness. It ought to be “presumed,” therefore, since there is no motive to the contrary, that the dealings of God with people would be impartial, and that there “would” be an advantage in serving him - not because people could lay him under “obligation,” but because it was right and proper that such advantage should accrue to them. To impress this view on the mind, Elihu directs Job and his friends to look to the heavens - so lofty, grand, and sublime; to reflect how much higher they are than man; and to remember that the great Creator is “above” all those heavens, and “thus” to see that he is so far cxalted that he is not dependent on man; that he cannot be affected by the righteousness or wickedness of his creatures; that his happiness is not dependent on them, and consequently that it is to bc presumed that he would act impartially, and treat all people as they deserved. There “would” be, therefore, an advantage in serving God.

And behold the clouds - Also far above us, and seeming to float in the heavens. The sentiment here is, that one view of the astonishing display of wisdom and power above us must extinguish every feeling that he will be influenced in his dealings as people are in theirs, or that he can gain or suffer anything by the good or bad behavior of his creatures.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 35:5. Look unto the heavens — These heavens, and their host, God has created: the bare sight of them is sufficient to show thee that God is infinitely beyond thee in wisdom and excellence.

Behold the clouds — שחקים shechakim, the ethers, (Vulgate, aethera,) from שחק shachak, to contend, fight together: the agitated or conflicting air and light; the strong agitation of these producing both light and heat. Look upon these, consider them deeply, and see and acknowledge the perfections of the Maker.


 
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