Bible Strands
Job 16:11
God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks to his friends and God while recounting his sudden ruin after a time of peace. He describes his position as the active target of both human accusation and divine action.
The words — יַסְגִּירֵנִי (yas.gi.re.ni) literally means "he delivers up me," and יִרְטֵנִי (yir.te.ni) means "he casts me." These verbs explicitly assign the transfer of Job to his adversaries to God's agency.
The thread — The motif of being handed over to adversaries runs through Psalms 27:12 and 31:8, where the psalmist explicitly requests preservation from foes and false witnesses. These references contrast with Job's declaration by framing the same dynamic as a plea for rescue rather than a statement of delivered fate.
Why it lands — The text states that God actively transfers the speaker to unjust men and the hands of the wicked before any theological explanation is offered. It requires the reader to face the raw claim of divine causation in suffering without smoothing the tension between justice and devastation.
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
God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
Cross-references
- Psalms 27:12 Do not hand me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.
- Psalms 7:14 Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
- Psalms 31:8 You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- 1 Samuel 24:18 And you have declared this day how you have treated me well, for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
- Job 1:13 One day, while Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
- Job 2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
- John 19:16 Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified, and the soldiers took Him away.
- Romans 11:32 For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.
- 2 Corinthians 12:7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.