Bible Strands
Job 5:13
He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz addresses Job during a discourse on divine retribution and human limitation.
The words — The Hebrew לֹכֵד (lo.khed) means "catches," and חֲכָמִים (cha.kha.mim) translates to "wise people." The verse states God captures the crafty and thwarts their counsel.
The thread — This motif appears in Psalms 9:15 and Psalms 7:15, where the wicked fall into self-made pits, and is quoted in 1 Corinthians 3:19 to demonstrate that worldly wisdom is foolishness.
Why it lands — The text declares that human schemes are inherently vulnerable to divine intervention. It requires readers to abandon reliance on their own cunning and acknowledge God's ultimate authority.
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
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
Cross-references
- Psalms 9:15 The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
- 1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”
- Psalms 7:15 He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.
- Luke 1:51 He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
- 1 Corinthians 1:19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
- Esther 9:25 But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
- Psalms 18:26 to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.
- Psalms 35:7 For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.
- Esther 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.
- 2 Samuel 15:31 Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”