Bible Strands
Job 27:2
“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job delivers this oath while continuing his formal discourse, positioned immediately before his statement that he will remain truthful as long as breath remains in his body.
The words — חַי־ (chai-) = [by] [the] life, and הֵמַר (he.Mar) = [who] he has made bitter.
The thread — The oath formula appears in Numbers 14:21, and the identical charge of unjust treatment resurfaces in Job 34:5.
Why it lands — The verse records a speaker swearing by God’s life to validate a claim that God has unjustly embittered him, forcing the reader to track the tension between sworn testimony and the experience of perceived divine abandonment.
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
As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Cross-references
- Job 34:5 For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
- Numbers 14:21 “Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,
- 2 Kings 4:27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”
- Ruth 1:20 “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.
- Ruth 3:13 Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he does not want to redeem you, as surely as the LORD lives, I will. Now lie here until morning.”
- 1 Samuel 14:39 As surely as the LORD who saves Israel lives, even if it is my son Jonathan, he must die!” But not one of the troops said a word.
- 1 Samuel 14:45 But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die—he who accomplished such a great deliverance for Israel? Never! As surely as the LORD lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for with God’s help he has accomplished this today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.
- 1 Samuel 20:21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,’ then come, because as surely as the LORD lives, it is safe for you, and there is no danger.
- 1 Samuel 25:26 Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.
- 1 Samuel 25:34 Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light.”