So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him, And that He would hear the cry of the afflicted—
Parallel translations
- WEB so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.
- KJV So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted.
- BSB They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- NKJV So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him; For He hears the cry of the afflicted.
- NLT They cause the poor to cry out, catching God’s attention. He hears the cries of the needy.
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 wicked's oppression made the cry of the poor rise to God, and He heard it. God is the attentive defender of the afflicted.
Overview
Elihu shows that the wickedness condemned in the previous verse includes crushing the poor, whose cry reaches God and moves Him to act. Scripture repeatedly affirms that the LORD hears the afflicted (Ex. 22:23; Ps. 9:12). This reveals a God who is not indifferent to suffering, foreshadowing the Savior who came to proclaim good news to the poor (Luke 4:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jas 5:4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
- Exod 3:7Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
- Job 35:9“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
- Ps 12:5“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
- Exod 3:9Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
- Exod 22:23–27If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry;
- Job 29:12–13Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
- Exod 2:23–24In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
- Job 31:19–20if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Job 22:9–10You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
- Job 24:12From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
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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 34:28 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
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