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Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?
Job 31:3 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
  • KJV Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
  • NKJV Is it not destruction for the wicked, And disaster for the workers of iniquity?
  • NASB “Is it not disaster to the criminal, And misfortune to those who practice injustice?
  • NLT Isn’t it calamity for the wicked and misfortune for those who do evil?

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 calamity belongs to the unrighteous and disaster to those who do iniquity. He states the moral order that wrongdoing brings ruin.

Overview

Job acknowledges the principle that evildoers face calamity, a truth his friends had wrongly applied to him. Here Job uses it not to condemn himself but to express his fear of God and motive for righteousness. While the simple link between sin and disaster is complicated by Job's own innocent suffering, the deeper truth stands that God judges iniquity, a judgment fully borne for sinners by Christ on the cross.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 14

  • Job 21:30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
  • Job 34:22There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.
  • 1 Th 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
  • Matt 7:13Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
  • Prov 10:29The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.
  • 2 Pet 2:1Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
  • Prov 21:15Justice executed is a joy to the righteous, but a terror to the workers of iniquity.
  • Jude 1:7In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
  • Ps 73:18Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
  • Ps 55:23But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
  • 2 Th 1:9They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might,
  • Prov 1:27when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.
  • Isa 28:21For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.
  • Rom 9:22What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 31:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 31:3 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.