For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Parallel translations
- WEB For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’
- BSB For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’
- NKJV For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing That he should delight in God.’
- NASB “For he has said, ‘It is of no use to a man When he becomes friends with God.’
- NLT He has even said, ‘Why waste time trying to please God?’
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
Moses pleads for God to go with His stiff-necked people, pardon their sin, and take them as His inheritance. He intercedes on the basis of the grace just revealed.
Overview
Building on God's proclamation of mercy, Moses asks for the very things God has revealed Himself to give: presence, pardon, and possession. He freely admits the people's stubbornness, appealing only to grace. To ask God to take them as His 'inheritance' anticipates the wonder that God's people become His treasured possession in Christ (Ephesians 1:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 35:3For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
- Job 21:14–16Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
- Job 9:22–23This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
- Mal 3:14Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
- Job 9:30–31If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
- Job 27:10Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?
- Ps 37:4Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
- Job 21:30That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
- Job 22:17Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 34:9 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.