Bible Strands
Job 23:12
I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly, asserting his own faithfulness as a basis for demanding an audience. He is mid-complaint, insisting he has not turned aside while God has hidden Himself from him.
The words — צָפַנְתִּי (tsaphan-ti) carries the verse: literally "I have hidden/stored away," a physical act of placing something in a secure location. It renders the relationship to God's words as deliberate, active preservation rather than passive reception.
The thread — The same impulse appears in Psalms 119:11 ("I have hidden Your word in my heart") and Jeremiah 15:16 ("Your words were found, and I ate them"). All three treat God's words as something to be stored in the body, not merely heard.
Why it lands — Job stakes his claim to an audience with God on this assertion of fidelity. The reader is asked to notice that the verse is not a quiet act of devotion but a legal argument: "I have done this, therefore you owe me a hearing."
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
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.
- Psalms 119:11 I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.
- Psalms 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth!
- John 4:34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
- Psalms 19:9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous.
- Job 22:22 Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.
- John 4:32 But He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
- John 8:31 So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples.
- Psalms 119:127 Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, even the purest gold.
- Job 6:10 It still brings me comfort, and joy through unrelenting pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.