what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?
Parallel translations
- WEB What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?
- KJV What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
- NKJV What then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?
- NASB What then could I do when God arises? And when He calls me to account, how am I to answer Him?
- NLT how could I face God? What could I say when he questioned me?
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 what he would do when God rises to judge if he had wronged his servants. The fear of divine accountability shaped his treatment of others.
Overview
Job reflects that mistreating his servants would leave him with no answer when God calls him to account. His ethics flow not merely from social convention but from reverence for the God who judges all. This awareness that we must answer to God for how we treat others undergirds biblical justice and finds its fullest motive in the gospel, where grace received compels grace given.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Jas 2:13For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Ps 9:12For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
- Ps 44:21would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?
- Ps 9:19Rise up, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence.
- Ps 10:12–15Arise, O LORD! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless.
- Zech 2:13Be silent before the LORD, all people, for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.”
- Rom 3:19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Job 10:2I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
- Mic 7:4The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.
- Ps 7:6Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.
- Job 9:32For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.
- Ps 76:9when God rose up to judge, to save all the lowly of the earth. Selah
- Ps 143:2Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Isa 10:3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
- Hos 9:7The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.
- Mark 7:2and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed.
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 31:14 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.