Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know.
Parallel translations
- KJV Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.
- BSB Should God repay you on your own terms when you have disavowed His? You must choose, not I; so tell me what you know.
- NKJV Should He repay it according to your terms, Just because you disavow it? You must choose, and not I; Therefore speak what you know.
- NASB “Shall God repay on your terms, because you have rejected His? For you must choose, and not I; Therefore declare what you know.
- NLT “Must God tailor his justice to your demands? But you have rejected him! The choice is yours, not mine. Go ahead, share your wisdom with us.
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
Elihu challenges Job: should God tailor His justice to Job's preferences when Job himself rejects it? God's standards are not subject to human approval.
Overview
This dense verse confronts Job with a choice: he cannot demand that God recompense matters according to Job's own terms while refusing God's verdict. Elihu insists Job must decide whether to submit, then speak what he truly knows. The thrust is that God's judgment is not negotiable, a truth that humbles every claim of self-righteousness before the cross.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Job 33:32If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you.
- Prov 11:31Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!
- Ps 135:6Whatever Yahweh pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps;
- Isa 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker — a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
- Job 34:11For the work of a man he will render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
- Matt 20:12–15saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’
- 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?”
- Job 41:11Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
- Ps 89:30–32If his children forsake my law, and don’t walk in my ordinances;
- Rom 11:35“Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”
- 2 Th 1:6–7Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,
- Job 15:31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
- Heb 11:26accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
- Job 18:4You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
- Job 33:5If you can, answer me. Set your words in order before me, and stand up.
- Job 9:12Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
- Heb 2:2For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 34:33 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.