Bible Strands
Job 10:17
You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks directly to God while cataloging his unrelieved suffering and questioning his own birth. He addresses the Almighty in a moment of despair, following his declaration that even a proud posture would trigger divine pursuit.
The words — תְּחַדֵּ֬שׁ (te.cha.Desh) literally means "you renew," and חֲלִיפ֖וֹת (cha.li.Fot) translates to "changes" or "alternating shifts." The verse states that God continually brings fresh accusations and multiplies His vexation, while hardships strike Job in successive waves.
The thread — The pattern of renewed opposition and shifting afflictions parallels the cycle of blessing and loss in Ruth 1:21. The concept of God producing witnesses against a sufferer aligns with Job 16:8, where physical frailty serves as testimony, and the theme of hostile delivery matches Job 16:11.
Why it lands — The text records a raw accounting of relentless pressure without offering resolution or theological explanation. It requires the reader to sit with the unvarnished reality of sustained suffering and the necessity of bringing it directly to God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
Cross-references
- Ruth 1:21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”
- Job 16:8 You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
- Job 16:11 God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
- Job 19:6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
- Psalms 55:19 God will hear and humiliate them—the One enthroned for the ages—Selah because they do not change and they have no fear of God.
- Jeremiah 48:11 Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and his aroma is unchanged.
- Zephaniah 1:12 And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’