That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
Parallel translations
- KJV For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
- BSB For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’
- NKJV For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
- NASB “For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What benefit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’
- NLT For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me? What’s the use of living a righteous life?’
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 restates Job's question: what advantage is righteousness, and what profit over sinning? He addresses the doubt that godliness pays.
Overview
Elihu paraphrases the troubling question lurking in Job's laments, namely whether serving God yields any real benefit. This is a perennial temptation when the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper (cf. Ps. 73). The verse sets up Elihu's reply that God's transcendence means our conduct does not enrich or harm Him, redirecting hope away from transactional religion toward trust in His character.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 34:9For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’
- Mal 3:14You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies?
- Job 9:30–31If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
- Job 9:21–22I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.
- Job 31:2For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?
- Job 21:15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
- Ps 73:13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,
- Job 10:15If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 35:3 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.