Bible Strands
Job 38:15
Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, answering Job’s lament by detailing divine authority over creation and moral order. This declaration follows the description of dawn revealing the earth and precedes the inquiry about the depths of the sea.
The words — The Hebrew יִמָּנַע (yi.mana') means "it is withheld," and זְר֥וֹעַ (ze.roa') translates to "arm." These terms directly map to the verse’s claim that light is denied to the wicked and their power is shattered.
The thread — This motif of divine judgment on the wicked appears in Job 18:5, where the lamp of the wicked is extinguished, and in Psalms 10:15 and 37:17, which both state that the arms of the wicked will be broken.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that God actively withholds favor and dismantles the strength of the wicked. It demands acceptance of this justice as a present reality rather than a conditional hope.
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
And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Job 18:5 Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.
- Psalms 37:17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
- Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
- Exodus 10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.”
- Job 5:14 They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.
- Job 18:18 He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.
- Ezekiel 30:22 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt. I will break his arms, both the strong one and the one already broken, and will make the sword fall from his hand.
- 2 Kings 6:18 As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.
- Isaiah 8:21 They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.