Bible Strands
Job 40:5
I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God at the close of his response to the Lord’s initial address from the whirlwind. He acknowledges his speechless state after God’s prior declarations.
The words — The verse centers on דִּ֭בַּרְתִּי (Di.bar.ti, "I have spoken") and אוֹסִֽיף ('o.Sif, "I will add/repeat"). Job uses these terms to declare that he has finished his defense and possesses no further reply.
The thread — The text aligns with Job 33:14, Psalms 62:11, and Job 9:3, which all frame God’s speech as singular, repeated, and ultimately unanswerable. The shared vocabulary links Job’s surrender to the broader scriptural pattern of divine authority.
Why it lands — The passage states a factual boundary: human speech ends where God’s sovereign word begins. It requires the reader to stop contending and acknowledge the limit of human capacity before the divine speaker.
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
Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Cross-references
- Job 33:14 For God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices.
- Psalms 62:11 God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,
- Job 9:3 If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.
- Job 9:15 For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
- 2 Kings 6:10 So the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God had pointed out. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
- Job 34:31 Suppose someone says to God, ‘I have endured my punishment; I will offend no more.
- Jeremiah 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.
- Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.