The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when He binds them, they do not cry for help.
Parallel translations
- WEB “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
- KJV But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.
- NKJV “But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath; They do not cry for help when He binds them.
- NASB “But the godless in heart nurture anger; They do not call for help when He binds them.
- NLT For the godless are full of resentment. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help.
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
The godless in heart store up anger and do not cry for help even when God binds them. Hardened hearts refuse to seek God in affliction.
Overview
Elihu describes the truly godless: instead of turning to God under affliction, they harbor resentment and refuse to call for help. Their suffering hardens rather than humbles them. This contrasts the proud heart with the penitent one, illustrating that the same affliction can soften or harden, and that only God's grace, fully given in Christ, turns a heart of stone to flesh (Ezek. 36:26).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Rom 2:5But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Job 36:8And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction,
- Job 27:8–10For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Job 15:4But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.
- 2 Chr 28:13“You must not bring the captives here,” they said, “for you are proposing to bring guilt upon us from the LORD and to add to our sins and our guilt. For our guilt is great, and fierce anger is upon Israel.”
- Num 32:14Now behold, you, a brood of sinners, have risen up in place of your fathers to further stoke the burning anger of the LORD against Israel.
- Job 35:9–10Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
- Ps 107:10Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,
- Matt 22:12–13‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was speechless.
- 2 Chr 28:22In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.
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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 36:13 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
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