Bible Strands
Job 5:19
He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Eliphaz the Temanite addresses Job in his first speech (Job 4:5–5:16), arguing that the righteous are ultimately delivered. This verse sits between God's healing (v. 18) and his redemption from famine and sword (v. 20).
The words — The pair שֵׁשׁ (shesh, "six") and שֶׁבַע (sheva', "seven") functions as a numerical idiom for "any and all" calamities, not a literal count.
The thread — Psalms 34:19 echoes the deliverance-from-all-afflictions claim; Psalms 91:3 names specific dangers (snare, deadly plague) where Job 5:19 uses the abstract "troubles"; 1 Corinthians 10:13 frames God's faithfulness as a limit on what is permitted.
Why it lands — Eliphaz offers a general formula of divine protection, not an answer to Job's specific loss. The verse asks the reader to hold the claim (God delivers the righteous) against the reality (Job is not being delivered) and decide which one is doing the work.
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 shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
Cross-references
- Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
- 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.
- Psalms 91:3 Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly plague.
- Proverbs 24:16 For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.
- 2 Peter 2:9 if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- 2 Corinthians 1:8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.