1Then Job answered,
2“How long will you torment me,
and crush me with words?
3You have reproached me ten times.
You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
4If it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
5If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
and plead against me my reproach,
6know now that God has subverted me,
and has surrounded me with his net.
7“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,
and has set darkness in my paths.
9He has stripped me of my glory,
and taken the crown from my head.
10He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.
He has plucked my hope up like a tree.
11He has also kindled his wrath against me.
He counts me among his adversaries.
12His troops come on together,
build a siege ramp against me,
and encamp around my tent.
13“He has put my brothers far from me.
My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14My relatives have gone away.
My familiar friends have forgotten me.
15Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am an alien in their sight.
16I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.
I beg him with my mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife.
I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18Even young children despise me.
If I arise, they speak against me.
19All my familiar friends abhor me.
They whom I loved have turned against me.
20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh.
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21“Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me.
22Why do you persecute me as God,
and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23“Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24That with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26After my skin is destroyed,
then I will see God in my flesh,
27whom I, even I, will see on my side.
My eyes will see, and not as a stranger.
“My heart is consumed within me.
28If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
because the root of the matter is found in me,
29be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”
Expression | Meaning | Biblical Text |
| "A labor of love" | 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 | |
| "A sign of the times" | Matthew 16:3 | |
| "At the eleventh hour | Matthew 20:1-16 | |
| "At your wit's end" | Psalm 107:23-27 | |
| "By the skin of your teeth" | To barely succeed | Job 19:20 |
| "Bite the dust" | For something to fail | Psalm 72:9 |
| "Blind leading the blind" | Unskilled persons are being led by equally unskilled persons. | Matthew 15:14 |
| "Broken heart" | To have much sorrow. | Psalm 34:18 |
| "Can a leopard change his spots?" | The inability of a person to change what they are | Jeremiah 13:23 |
| "Cast the first stone" | To criticize first, or be the first person to attack. | John 8:7 |
| "Cast your pearls before swine" | Matthew 7:6 | |
| "Drop in a bucket" | Insignificant impact or amount | Isaiah 40:15 |
| "Eat, drink, and be merry" | Ecclesiastes 8:15; Luke 12:19; 1 Corinthians 15:32 | |
| Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" | If something bad is done by a person, then the same thing should happen to them as a punishment. | Matthew 5:38 |
| "Fall from grace" | This speaks of a person who has fallen from a position of respect or rank. | Galatians 5:4 |
| "Fall by the wayside" | Luke 8:5 | |
| "Feet of clay" | Daniel 2:31-45 | |
| "Fight the good fight" | 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:6 | |
| "Fly in the ointment" | Something that ruins an effort. | Ecclesiastes 10:1 |
| "For every thing there is a season" | Ecclesiastes 3 | |
| "Forbidden fruit" | Genesis 3:3 | |
| "Go the extra mile" | Go beyond what is expected of a person. | Matthew 5:41 |
| "Good Samaritan" | This speaks of a person who helps another person in need without the intent of receiving something in return. | Luke 10:30-37 |
| "He that toucheth pitch" | Ecclesiasticus 13:1 (Apocrypha) | |
| "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword | Matthew 26:52 | |
| "How the mighty have fallen" | 2 Samuel 1:19 | |
| "Land of milk and honey" | Exodus 3:1-22 | |
| "Land of Nod" | Genesis 4:16 | |
| "Leopard cannot change its spots" | Jeremiah 13:23 | |
| "Let there be light" | Lighthearted comment when someone turns on a light | Genesis 1:3 |
| "Like a lamb to the slaughter" | To do an innocent act not knowing of the danger ahead. | Isaiah 53:7 |
| "Millstone around your neck" | Luke 17:2 | |
| "Move mountains" | 1 Corinthians 13:2 | |
| "Nothing but skin and bones" | For a person to be very thin or emasculated. | Job 19:19-20 |
| "Nothing new under the sun" | Ecclesiastes 1:9 | |
| "O ye of little faith" | Matthew 8:26 | |
| "Pride comes before a fall" | Usually, a caution that someone is too confident and will cause the person to fail. | Proverbs 16:18 |
| "The love of money is the root of all evil" | 1 Timothy 6:10 | |
| "The powers that be" | Romans 13:1 | |
| "The straight and narrow" | Matthew 7:13-14 | |
| "Writing on the wall" | Indicating that something bad is about to happen. | Daniel 5:1-31 |
You may see several examples, given above, at Biblical idioms and sayings with origins explained.
David Crystal has discovered 257 examples of these idioms. You may read or listen to an interview with him at Talk of the Nation, December 22, 2010, and may want to order his book, Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language.