“Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’
Parallel translations
- WEB “Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
- KJV Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
- NKJV “Do you think this is right? Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?
- NASB “Do you think this is in accordance with justice? Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?
- NLT “Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I am righteous before 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
Elihu questions whether Job thinks it right to claim his righteousness exceeds God's. He confronts what he sees as Job's self-justifying complaint.
Overview
Elihu challenges the implication in Job's words that Job is more in the right than God. While Job longed to be vindicated, he never truly claimed superiority to God, so Elihu sharpens Job's words beyond their intent. Still, the verse exposes the human tendency to elevate our sense of justice above God's, a pride answered only by submitting to God's righteousness revealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Matt 12:36–37But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
- Job 34:5For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
- Job 40:8Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
- Luke 19:22His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?
- Job 16:17yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
- Job 27:2–6“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—
- Job 9:17For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.
- Job 19:6–7then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
- Job 10:7though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
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 35:2 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.