I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
The book that contains this declaration is the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book preserved, opening with a prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2, continuing through speeches, then the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37 and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, and closing with a prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17. Within that structure the verse stands in the debate between Job and his three friends on the subject of his afflictions, a debate running from chapters 4 to 31 in three circles of speeches on the part of each. It belongs to Job's answer, which exalts God's power and wisdom and describes Job's former condition.
In that answer Job declares that he will teach his friends about God's dealings and will not conceal what he knows of the Almighty. His friends, by contrast, relied on their own observation and wrongly applied their generally true claims about good and evil to Job's suffering, while he knew his integrity and did not accuse God foolishly.
The book that contains this declaration is the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book preserved, opening with a prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2, continuing through speeches, then the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37 and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, and closing with a prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17. Within that structure the verse stands in the debate between Job and his three friends on the subject of his afflictions, a debate running from chapters 4 to 31 in three circles of speeches on the part of each. It belongs to Job's answer, which exalts God's power and wisdom and describes Job's former condition.
In that answer Job declares that he will teach his friends about God's dealings and will not conceal what he knows of the Almighty. His friends, by contrast, relied on their own observation and wrongly applied their generally true claims about good and evil to Job's suffering, while he knew his integrity and did not accuse God foolishly.