If they listen and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
Parallel translations
- KJV If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
- BSB If they obey and serve Him, then they end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness.
- NKJV If they obey and serve Him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures.
- NASB “If they listen and serve Him, They will end their days in prosperity, And their years in happiness.
- NLT “If they listen and obey God, they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives. All their years will be pleasant.
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
If they listen and serve God, they will spend their days in prosperity and pleasant years. Obedience leads to blessing.
Overview
Elihu states the blessed outcome of heeding God's correction: a life of prosperity and well-being. This reflects the general principle, prominent in wisdom literature, that obedience tends toward flourishing (Deut. 30:15-16; Ps. 1). While not an absolute formula in a fallen world, it points to the true and lasting blessedness found in fellowship with God through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jer 7:23but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
- Isa 1:19If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
- Jer 26:13Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey Yahweh your God’s voice; and Yahweh will relent from the evil that he has pronounced against you.
- Deut 4:30When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice.
- Heb 11:8By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
- Job 22:23If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
- Jas 5:5You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
- Rev 18:7However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’
- Job 22:21“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.
- Job 42:12So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.
- Job 11:13–19“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
- Rom 6:17But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
- Eccl 9:2–3All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.
- Job 21:11They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
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 36:11 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.