Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
- KJV Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
- NKJV Your wickedness affects a man such as you, And your righteousness a son of man.
- NASB “Your wickedness is for a man like yourself, And your righteousness is for a son of man.
- NLT No, your sins affect only people like yourself, and your good deeds also affect only humans.
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 notes that our sin and righteousness chiefly affect fellow human beings. Our conduct's consequences land on people like ourselves.
Overview
Having said our deeds do not alter God's being, Elihu clarifies that they deeply affect other people. Wickedness harms our neighbor, and righteousness benefits others, showing the horizontal weight of moral action. This anticipates the second great commandment to love our neighbor (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:39), and reminds us that true faith bears fruit in love toward others.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Josh 7:1–5The Israelites, however, acted unfaithfully regarding the things devoted to destruction. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart. So the anger of the LORD burned against the Israelites.
- Josh 22:20Was not Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath upon the whole congregation of Israel? Yet it was not only Achan who perished because of his sin!’”
- Eccl 9:18Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
- Job 42:8So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”
- Ezek 22:30I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.
- Jonah 1:12“Pick me up,” he answered, “and cast me into the sea, so it may quiet down for you. For I know that I am to blame for this violent storm that has come upon you.”
- Acts 27:24and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’
- Heb 11:7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
- Gen 19:29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Gen 18:24–33What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there?
- Gen 12:2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
- Ps 106:23So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.
- Ps 106:30But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 35:8 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.