Bible Strands
Job 36:19
Can your wealth or all your mighty effort keep you from distress?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job during his discursive address, positioning this question immediately after a warning against being lured by riches or bribes. He speaks to a suffering man who may be tempted to rely on personal resources rather than divine protection.
The words — שׁוּעַךְ (Shu.'a./kha) translates as "your opulence," and מַאֲמַצֵי־כֹחַ (ma.'a.ma.tzei-kho.ach) means "efforts of strength." These terms directly name the two human defenses the verse questions.
The thread — The insufficiency of material security runs through Proverbs 11:4, which declares riches worthless in wrath, and Job 9:13, which notes God does not restrain His anger. Proverbs 11:21 extends this pattern by affirming that wickedness cannot ultimately escape judgment.
Why it lands — The text states plainly that neither wealth nor human effort can prevent distress. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on material or personal power and acknowledge that deliverance depends solely on God.
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
Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 11:4 Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Proverbs 11:21 Be assured that the wicked will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will escape.
- Job 9:13 God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.
- Psalms 33:16 No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- Proverbs 10:2 Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Isaiah 2:20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.
- James 5:3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days.
- Job 34:20 They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.