For God need not examine a man further or have him approach for judgment.
Parallel translations
- WEB For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.
- KJV For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.
- NKJV For He need not further consider a man, That he should go before God in judgment.
- NASB “For He does not need to consider a person further, That he should go before God in judgment.
- NLT We don’t set the time when we will come before God in judgment.
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
God needs no lengthy investigation before bringing a person to judgment. It affirms that God's perfect knowledge makes His judgments immediate and sure.
Overview
Elihu states that, because God already sees all, He need not examine a person further before judgment, as a human court would. The verse underscores the directness and sufficiency of divine justice. The text is somewhat difficult, but its thrust is clear: God's omniscience makes His judgment fair and unanswerable, a judgment from which Christ alone provides refuge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ezra 9:13After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),
- Ps 119:137Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.
- Rom 9:20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”
- Dan 9:7–9To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You.
- Jer 2:5This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?
- Job 16:21Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
- Job 23:7Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
- Job 11:11Surely He knows the deceit of men. If He sees iniquity, does He not take note?
- Job 9:32–33For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.
- Isa 42:3A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.
- Job 11:6and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Job 34:10–12Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly.
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 34:23 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.