Job 9:23
New International Version
When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

New Living Translation
When a plague sweeps through, he laughs at the death of the innocent.

English Standard Version
When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

Berean Standard Bible
When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

King James Bible
If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.

New King James Version
If the scourge slays suddenly, He laughs at the plight of the innocent.

New American Standard Bible
“If the whip kills suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

NASB 1995
“If the scourge kills suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

NASB 1977
“If the scourge kills suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

Legacy Standard Bible
If the scourge puts to death suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

Amplified Bible
“When [His] scourge kills suddenly, He mocks at the despair of the innocent.

Christian Standard Bible
When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
When disaster brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

American Standard Version
If the scourge slay suddenly, He will mock at the trial of the innocent.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
If his rod kills suddenly, also he is mocking the senselessness of the innocent

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.

Contemporary English Version
When a good person dies a sudden death, God sits back and laughs.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If he scourge, let him kill at once, and not laugh at the pains of the innocent.

English Revised Version
If the scourge slay suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
When a sudden disaster brings death, he makes fun of the despair of innocent people.

Good News Translation
When an innocent person suddenly dies, God laughs.

International Standard Version
If a calamity causes sudden death, he'll mock at the despair of the innocent.

JPS Tanakh 1917
If the scourge slay suddenly, He will mock at the calamity of the guiltless.

Literal Standard Version
If a scourge puts to death suddenly, He laughs at the trial of the innocent.

Majority Standard Bible
When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

New American Bible
When the scourge slays suddenly, he scoffs at the despair of the innocent.

NET Bible
If a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks at the despair of the innocent.

New Revised Standard Version
When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

New Heart English Bible
If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

Webster's Bible Translation
If the scourge shall slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.

World English Bible
If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

Young's Literal Translation
If a scourge doth put to death suddenly, At the trial of the innocent He laugheth.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Job: How Can I Argue with God?
22It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ 23When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent. 24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?…

Cross References
Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?"

Job 24:12
From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.


Treasury of Scripture

If the whip slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.

If the

Job 1:13-19
And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: …

Job 2:7
So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

he will

Job 4:7
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

Job 8:20
Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:

2 Samuel 14:15,17
Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid…

Jump to Previous
Calamity Death Despair Disaster Disease Fate Guiltless Innocent Kill Kills Laugh Makes Mock Mocketh Mocks Scourge Slay Sport Sudden Suddenly Trial Wrong
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Calamity Death Despair Disaster Disease Fate Guiltless Innocent Kill Kills Laugh Makes Mock Mocketh Mocks Scourge Slay Sport Sudden Suddenly Trial Wrong
Job 9
1. Job acknowledges God's justice
22. Man's innocence is not to be condemned by afflictions














(23) The scourge slay suddenly.--Probably meaning that in the case of hidden calamity overtaking an innocent man, He, God, will laugh at it: that is to say, take no more notice of it than if it furnished Him with sport. The very fact of such calamity befalling, as it often does, the innocent is at all events, in one view, a proof of His indifference to it who, by the exercise of His providence, could easily interpose to prevent it, and so looks as if He verily winked at it. Job's argument is the argument of a man who wilfully shuts out faith in his estimate of God's dealings; not that Job is devoid of faith, but in the course of arguing with his friends, who maintain the strict, rigid justice of God, he confronts them with the severe logic of facts, which they can neither contradict nor explain. Of course, for the very requirements of argument, he takes the pessimist view of the Divine providence, and declares even that the earth is given over into the hands of the wicked man. "He covereth the face of the judges thereof; and if it is not He that doeth this, who is it? there can be none other. He either doeth the evil Himself, or He permits it to be done; and what is the difference, supposing Him able to prevent it?" When we review the disorders of the earth--and how much more in Job's days was it so--all must admit that faith is sorely tried; and even faith can render but a very partial explanation of them, so that such a line as this is fully justified, when the adversary is determined to maintain that all is rose-coloured, happy, and equal as Job's friends did. They had before them an instance of inequality in the Divine conduct, and they must either make it square with the Divine justice or give up the contest. They could not do the one, and were unwilling to do the other; it only remained, therefore, for Job to assert the inequality of the Divine dealings, and he puts the case as strongly as he can, all the time, it must never be forgotten, holding fast his faith in God, so that at the last he is even justified by God, who says to his friends, "Ye have not spoken of me that which is right, like my servant" (Job 42:8).

Verse 23. - If the scourge slay suddenly. Such a "scourge" as war, or pestilence, or famine, is probably meant. If one of these be let loose upon a land, and slay, as it always does slay, indifferently the good and the bad, the innocent and the guilty, what is God's attitude? Does he interpose to save the righteous? By no means. He looks on passively, indifferently. Job even goes further, and says, with an audacity that borders on irreverence, if it does not even overstep the border, He will laugh at the trial of the innocent. St. Jerome says, "There is nothing in the whole book harsher than this." It may, perhaps, be excused, partly as rhetorical, partly as needful for the full expansion of Job's argument. But it is a fearful utterance. (Professor Lee's attempt to explain the whole passage differently is scarcely a successful one.)

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
When
אִם־ (’i·mō·šō-)
Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not

the scourge
שׁ֭וֹט (wṭ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7752: A scourge, whip

brings sudden
פִּתְאֹ֑ם (piṯ·’ōm)
Adverb
Strong's 6597: Suddenness, suddenly

death,
יָמִ֣ית (yā·mîṯ)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 4191: To die, to kill

He mocks
יִלְעָֽג׃ (yil·‘āḡ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3932: To deride, to speak unintelligibly

the despair
לְמַסַּ֖ת (lə·mas·saṯ)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 4531: A testing, of men, of God

of the innocent.
נְקִיִּ֣ם (nə·qî·yim)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 5355: Clean, free from, exempt


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OT Poetry: Job 9:23 If the scourge kills suddenly he will (Jb)
Job 9:22
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