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Then he will pray to God, and He will accept him, So that he may see His face with joy, And He will restore His righteousness to that person.
Job 33:26 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness.
  • KJV He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.
  • BSB He prays to God and finds favor; he sees God’s face and shouts for joy, and God restores His righteousness to that man.
  • NKJV He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, He shall see His face with joy, For He restores to man His righteousness.
  • NLT When he prays to God, he will be accepted. And God will receive him with joy and restore him to good standing.

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

The restored man prays, God receives him with favor, and his righteousness is restored. It shows reconciliation with God as the heart of true deliverance.

Overview

The redeemed man turns to God in prayer and is welcomed, seeing God's face 'with joy' and having his righteous standing restored. This is more than healing; it is renewed fellowship with God. The verse anticipates the gospel reality that through Christ believers are reconciled to God and receive a righteousness not their own (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 32

  • Ps 50:15Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
  • Ps 30:5For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
  • Acts 2:28You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
  • Acts 9:11The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
  • Isa 30:19For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
  • Ps 91:15He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.
  • Jude 1:24Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
  • Jer 33:3‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.’
  • Heb 11:26accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
  • Ps 67:1For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah.
  • Prov 24:12If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this”; doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
  • Ps 116:1–6I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy.
  • 1 Sam 26:23Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn’t stretch out my hand against Yahweh’s anointed.
  • Num 6:25–26Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you.
  • 2 Kgs 20:2–5Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying,
  • Matt 10:41–42He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.
  • Jonah 2:2–7He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.
  • Ps 30:7–11You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
  • Ps 6:1–9For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger, neither discipline me in your wrath.
  • Job 42:8–9Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”
  • Ps 16:11You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
  • Ps 41:8–11“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”
  • Ps 18:20Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
  • Ps 28:1–2By David. To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.
  • Ps 62:12Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.
  • Job 34:28so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.
  • Ps 4:6–7Many say, “Who will show us any good?” Yahweh, let the light of your face shine on us.
  • 2 Chr 33:12–13When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
  • Job 22:26–27For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God.
  • 2 Chr 33:19His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
  • Job 34:11For the work of a man he will render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
  • Ps 28:6Blessed be Yahweh, because he has heard the voice of my petitions.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (9)

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 33:26YouTube · 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 33:26 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.