For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside.
Parallel translations
- WEB My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned aside.
- KJV My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
- BSB My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.
- NKJV My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.
- NASB “My foot has held on to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside.
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 affirms that he has faithfully followed God's ways and not strayed. It matters because his integrity is genuine, not the hidden sin his friends allege.
Overview
Continuing his reply to Eliphaz, Job protests his innocence by recalling his steady obedience to God's path. He insists his suffering is not the result of secret wickedness, undercutting the friends' retribution theology. Job's sincere desire to walk in God's ways points beyond himself to Christ, who alone perfectly kept the Father's way.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 44:18Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from your path,
- 2 Pet 2:20–22For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
- Ps 125:5But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
- Ps 17:5My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.
- Job 17:9Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
- Rom 2:7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
- Luke 8:13–15Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation.
- Acts 20:18–19When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,
- Ps 18:20–24Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
- 2 Cor 1:12For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
- Ps 36:3The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
- Zeph 1:6those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.
- 1 Sam 12:2–5Now, behold, the king walks before you. I am old and gray-headed. Behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth to this day.
- Acts 20:33–34I coveted no one’s silver, or gold, or clothing.
- 1 Th 2:10You are witnesses with God, how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.
Resources, by level
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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 23:11 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.