For He need not further consider a man, That he should go before God in 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.
- BSB For God need not examine a man further or have him approach for 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 9:13“After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,
- Ps 119:137You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.
- Rom 9:20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
- Dan 9:7–9Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
- Jer 2:5Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?
- Job 16:21that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!
- Job 23:7There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.
- Job 11:11For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.
- Job 9:32–33For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.
- Isa 42:3He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.
- Job 11:6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Job 34:10–12“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 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.