Bible Strands
Job 37:19
Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses Job and the gathered listeners during a discourse on divine majesty, positioned immediately after describing the sky spread like a bronze mirror and before questioning whether God must be notified of a human desire to speak.
The words — The Hebrew הוֹדִיעֵנוּ (Hodi‘enu) means "make known to us," and עָרַךְ (‘arakh) literally means "to set in order" or "arrange." These terms frame the admission that human speech cannot be properly organized when confronted with obscurity.
The thread — The request to formulate a case before God mirrors Job’s earlier declaration of intent to argue his case before the Almighty (Job 13:3) and his assertion of possessing understanding (Job 12:3). The same struggle to articulate a plea before divine judgment reappears in Job 13:6.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge that human language fails to construct a coherent argument when faced with divine obscurity. It demands the conclusion that clarity in approaching God depends on revelation, not on human rhetorical skill.
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
Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
Cross-references
- Job 12:3 But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
- Job 13:3 Yet I desire to speak to the Almighty and argue my case before God.
- Job 13:6 Hear now my argument, and listen to the plea of my lips.
- Job 26:14 Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”
- Job 28:20 From where, then, does wisdom come, and where does understanding dwell?
- Job 38:2 “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?
- Job 42:3 You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
- Psalms 73:16 When I tried to understand all this, it was troublesome in my sight
- Psalms 73:22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.
- Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.