Bible Strands
Job 35:9
Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job while arguing that human behavior does not constrain God’s nature. The remark appears in the center of Elihu’s speech, directly after stating that personal righteousness or wickedness only impacts other people.
The words — The Hebrew עֲשׁוּקִים ('a.shu.Kim, “oppressions”) and יַזְעִ֑יקוּ (yaz.'I.ku, “they cry out”) name the core action. They describe people groaning under heavy burdens and pleading for deliverance from a powerful oppressor.
The thread — This pattern of oppressed people crying out appears in Exodus 2:23 and Exodus 3:7, where Israelites groan under Egyptian slavery. It echoes Job 34:28, which notes that the cry of the afflicted reaches God’s attention.
Why it lands — The verse records human desperation without guaranteeing divine intervention. It forces the reader to confront the gap between human pleading and the silent sovereignty of God that Job 35:10 immediately highlights.
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
By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
Cross-references
- Exodus 2:23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
- Job 34:28 They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- Exodus 3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
- Exodus 3:9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them.
- Nehemiah 5:1 About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
- Job 12:19 He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows the established.
- Job 24:12 From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.
- Job 40:9 Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?
- Psalms 10:15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call him to account for his wickedness until none is left to be found.
- Psalms 12:5 “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”