Bible Strands
Job 35:11
who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job in a rhetorical question, challenging Job’s assumption that God remains indifferent to human suffering. The speaker positions this claim within a broader argument about divine justice and human ignorance.
The words — The Hebrew מַלְּפֵ֫נוּ (mal·le·fe·nu) translates literally as “who teaches us,” while יְחַכְּמֵֽנוּ (ye·cha·ke·me·nu) means “he makes us wise.” These verbs establish human understanding as a received instruction rather than a self-generated capacity.
The thread — The motif of God as teacher appears in Psalm 94:12 regarding disciplined instruction, Job 32:8 regarding the Spirit’s role in granting understanding, and Job 36:22 which explicitly asks who can teach like God. Each reference treats divine instruction as the source of human wisdom.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that wisdom originates from divine revelation, not independent observation. It demands a shift from demanding answers to recognizing God’s ongoing instructional presence.
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
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
Cross-references
- Psalms 94:12 Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law,
- Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
- Job 36:22 Behold, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him?
- Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.