Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
Parallel translations
- WEB Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?
- BSB Can your wealth or all your mighty effort keep you from distress?
- NKJV Will your riches, Or all the mighty forces, Keep you from distress?
- NASB “Will your cry for help keep you from distress, Or all the exertions of your strength?
- NLT Could all your wealth or all your mighty efforts keep you from distress?
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 asks whether Job's wealth or strength could sustain him in distress. Earthly resources cannot save in the day of trouble.
Overview
Elihu confronts the futility of trusting riches or human strength to deliver from distress. No amount of wealth or might can ransom a life before God (Ps. 49:6-8). The verse exposes the inadequacy of all earthly security and directs the heart to seek refuge in God alone, whose saving help is found supremely in Christ, the only ransom for sinners.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 11:4Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
- Prov 11:21Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.
- Isa 37:36Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
- Job 9:13If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
- Ps 33:16–17There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
- Isa 2:20In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
- Prov 10:2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
- Zeph 1:18Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
- Jas 5:3Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
- Job 34:20In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without 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 36:19 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.