Bible Strands
Job 27:12
Surely all of you have seen it for yourselves. Why then do you keep up this empty talk?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his friends directly in the final stretch of his discourse, challenging their repeated claims about divine retribution. He speaks to them immediately after promising to reveal the ways of the Almighty and right before describing the wicked man’s portion.
The words — The Hebrew הֶבֶל (hevel) translates literally to "vanity" or "emptiness," paired with the verb תֶּהְבָּלוּ (tehabalu) meaning "do you act in vain." Job uses these terms to label his friends' arguments as fundamentally hollow.
The thread — This critique of empty rhetoric echoes Job 16:3, Job 19:2, and Job 21:3, where the same pattern of long-winded, unhelpful speech surfaces. Each reference tracks the friends' tendency to prioritize verbose argument over substantive truth.
Why it lands — The verse demands that listeners examine their own words for substance rather than repetition. It requires readers to replace hollow debate with direct engagement with the reality of God's governance.
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
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain?
Cross-references
- Job 16:3 Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?
- Job 19:2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
- Job 21:3 Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
- Job 6:25 How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
- Job 13:4 You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
- Job 17:2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
- Job 21:28 For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
- Job 26:2 “How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
- Ecclesiastes 8:14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.
- Ecclesiastes 9:1 So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.