Bible Strands
Job 9:16
If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly during his lament over divine justice, positioned immediately after acknowledging his inability to answer his Judge (Job 9:15) and before describing God’s crushing tempest (Job 9:17).
The words — `ka.Ra.ti` (I called) and `ya.'a.Zin` (he gave ear) frame the verse’s tension between summoning God and doubting His attentiveness.
The thread — The motif of pleading with God and encountering silence or unresponsiveness appears in Exodus 6:9, where Israel’s broken spirit blocks their hearing, and Judges 6:13, where Gideon questions God’s presence amid suffering.
Why it lands — It forces the reader to confront the reality of divine sovereignty and human limitation without assuming prayer guarantees immediate relief or clear answers.
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
If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
Cross-references
- Exodus 6:9 Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.
- Judges 6:13 “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
- Job 29:24 If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.
- Psalms 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.
- Psalms 66:18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
- Psalms 116:1 I love the LORD, for He has heard my voice—my appeal for mercy.
- Psalms 126:1 A song of ascents. When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers.
- Luke 24:41 While they were still in disbelief because of their joy and amazement, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
- Acts 12:14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the gate, but ran inside and announced, “Peter is standing at the gate!”