Would you show Him partiality or argue in His defense?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?
- KJV Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
- NKJV Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God?
- NASB “Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God?
- NLT Will you slant your testimony in his favor? Will you argue God’s case for him?
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 asks if his friends will show God favoritism by twisting the truth. God needs no biased advocates.
Overview
Job challenges whether they will 'show partiality to him' and 'contend for God' as if pleading a weak case. Flattering God with falsehood is no service to Him. The all-knowing Judge requires truthful witnesses, not partisans who bend facts in His supposed favor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Prov 24:23These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.
- Exod 23:2–3You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.
- Job 34:19who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.
- Mal 2:9“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
- Job 32:21I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man.
- Lev 19:15You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 13:8 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.