Bible Strands
Job 9:19
If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly while cataloging His overwhelming force. He speaks this declaration immediately after noting that God denies him rest and crushes him with bitterness (Job 9:18).
The words — The Hebrew terms כֹּחַ (koach, "power") and מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, "justice") structure the verse's dual challenge. The verb יוֹעִידֵנִי (yo'ideini, "will he summon me") establishes the legal impossibility of calling God to account.
The thread — The same tension between divine might and unanswerable justice appears in Job 9:4 and Job 9:32. Paul later reframes this dynamic in 1 Corinthians 1:25.
Why it lands — The text states that God cannot be compelled by human strength or summoned to a courtroom. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on personal power or legal appeals when confronting divine 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
If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
Cross-references
- Job 9:4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?
- Job 9:32 For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.
- 1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
- Job 40:9 Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?
- Psalms 62:11 God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,
- Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
- Job 31:35 (Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.
- Job 33:5 Refute me if you can; prepare your case and confront me.
- Job 36:17 But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have seized you.
- 1 Corinthians 10:22 Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?