Job 6:25

25 How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?

Job 6:25 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?
English Standard Version (ESV)
25 How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove?
New Living Translation (NLT)
25 Honest words can be painful, but what do your criticisms amount to?
The Message Bible (MSG)
25 Honest words never hurt anyone, but what's the point of all this pious bluster?
American Standard Version (ASV)
25 How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what doth it reprove?
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
25 How painful an honest discussion can be! In correcting me, you correct yourselves!
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
25 How painful honest words can be! But what does your rebuke prove?
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
25 Honest words are so painful! But your reasoning doesn't prove anything.

Job 6:25 Meaning and Commentary

Job 6:25

How forcible are right words!
&c.] That are according to right reason; such as may be called strong reasons, or bony arguments, as in ( Isaiah 41:21 ) ; there are strength and weight in such words, reasonings, and arguments; they bring evidence and conviction with them, and are very powerful to persuade the mind to an assent unto them, and have great influence to engage to a profession or practice of what they are used for; such are more especially the words of God, the Scriptures of truth, the doctrines of the Gospel; these are right words, see ( Proverbs 8:6 Proverbs 8:8 Proverbs 8:9 ) ; they are not contrary to right reason, although above it; and are agreeably to sanctified reason, and received by it; they are according to the perfections of God, even his righteousness and holiness, and according to the law of God, and in no wise repugnant to it, which is the rule of righteousness; and they are doctrines according to godliness, and are far from encouraging licentiousness; and they are all strictly true, and must be right: and there is a force and strength in those words; they come with weight, especially when they come in demonstration of the Spirit and power of God; they are mighty, through God, for the pulling down the strong holds of sin, Satan, and self, and for the bringing of men to the obedience of Christ; to the quickening dead sinners, enlightening dark minds, softening hard hearts; renewing, changing, and transforming men into quite another temper and disposition of mind they formerly had; for the comforting and relieving souls in distress, and saints under affliction; and have so very wonderful an influence on the lives and conversations of those to whom they come, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, as to teach them to deny all sin and ungodliness, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly: or, "how forcible are the words of an upright man!" F1 that is, sincere, impartial, and faithful; which Job suggests his friends were not: some think Job has respect to his own words, and render the clause, "what hardness", or "harshness", have "right words!" F2 Such as he believed his own were, and in which there were nothing hard and harsh, sharp and severe, or which might give just offence; such as his cursing the day in which he was born, or charging his friends with treachery and deceit: but rather he tacitly reflects upon the words and arguments of his friends; intimating, that though there is force and strength in right words, theirs were neither right nor forcible, but partial and unjust, and weak and impotent; which had no strength of reasoning in them, nor carried any conviction with them, as follows:

but what doth your arguing reprove?
their arguments they had used with him had no strength in them; they were of no avail; they did not reprove or convince of any evil he had been guilty of, or any mistake he had made; they were weak, impertinent, and useless, and fell with no weight upon him, nor wrought any conviction in him.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 So Aquila apud Drusium.
F2 (wurxn hm) "quid duritiei habent verba rectitudinis", Schmidt; so Luther.

Job 6:25 In-Context

23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?
24 “Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.
25 How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?
26 Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?
27 You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.

Cross References 1

  • 1. Ecclesiastes 12:11; Isaiah 22:23
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