Bible Strands
Job 5:1
“Call out if you please, but who will answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz speaks to Job during the first cycle of dialogues, immediately before warning that resentment and envy destroy the simple.
The words — מִ/קְּדֹשִׁ֣ים (mi./ke.do.Shim) = of the holy ones; תִּפְנֶֽה (tif.Neh) = will you turn.
The thread — The concept of heavenly beings appears in Job 4:18, where God charges His servants and angels with error, and in Job 15:15, which states God places no trust in His holy ones. Job 15:8 shifts the focus to whether one eavesdrops on God’s council or hoards wisdom for oneself.
Why it lands — The text poses a rhetorical question that establishes the silence of the holy ones, forcing the listener to confront the futility of seeking answers from created beings. It requires a reader to acknowledge that appeal to heavenly intermediaries yields no response, leaving divine action as the only possible outcome.
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
Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
Cross-references
- Job 15:15 If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,
- Job 4:18 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
- Job 15:8 Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?
- Isaiah 41:21 “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Submit your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.
- Isaiah 41:1 “Be silent before Me, O islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come forward and testify; let us together draw near for judgment.
- Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
- Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.
- Deuteronomy 33:2 He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.
- Psalms 16:3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.
- Psalms 106:16 In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.