Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?
- KJV Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
- NKJV Will you speak wickedly for God, And talk deceitfully for Him?
- NASB “Will you speak what is unjust for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him?
- NLT “Are you defending God with lies? Do you make your dishonest arguments for his sake?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job warns that his friends are defending God with lies. Speaking falsehood, even on God's behalf, is still wickedness.
Overview
Job asks pointedly whether they will 'speak unrighteously for God' and 'talk deceitfully for him.' Their zeal to vindicate God has led them to distort the truth about Job and about God's ways. The verse is a sober reminder that God is not honored by dishonest arguments made in His name.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 36:4For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.
- Job 27:4my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.
- 2 Cor 4:2Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
- John 16:2They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
- Job 11:2–4“Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a speaker be vindicated?
- Job 17:5If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
- Job 4:7Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
- Job 32:21–22I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man.
- Rom 3:5–8But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 13:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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