He strikes them for their wickedness in full view,
Parallel translations
- WEB He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others;
- KJV He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others;
- NKJV He strikes them as wicked men In the open sight of others,
- NASB “He strikes them like the wicked In a public place,
- NLT He strikes them down because they are wicked, doing it openly for all to see.
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 strikes down the wicked openly, in plain sight of others. It shows that His judgment is both just and public.
Overview
Elihu states that God punishes the wicked as their guilt deserves, doing so in the open where it can be seen. God's justice is not hidden but ultimately vindicated before all. This public dimension anticipates the final judgment, when God's righteousness will be openly displayed, and reminds believers that their refuge is the public victory of Christ over sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 58:10–11The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
- Rev 18:20Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.
- Exod 14:30That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.
- Deut 13:9–11Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
- 1 Tim 5:24The sins of some men are obvious, going ahead of them to judgment; but the sins of others do not surface until later.
- 1 Tim 5:20But those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin.
- Rev 18:9–10Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.
- Deut 21:21Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
- Isa 66:24“As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”
- 2 Sam 12:11–12This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.
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 34:26 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.