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Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
Job 36:21 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
  • BSB Be careful not to turn to iniquity, for this you have preferred to affliction.
  • NKJV Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, For you have chosen this rather than affliction.
  • NASB “Be careful, do not turn to evil, For you preferred this to misery.
  • NLT Be on guard! Turn back from evil, for God sent this suffering to keep you from a life of evil.

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.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 13

  • Heb 11:25choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time;
  • Ps 66:18If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.
  • 1 Pet 3:17For it is better, if it is God’s will, that you suffer for doing well than for doing evil.
  • Matt 16:24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
  • Dan 6:10When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his room toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before.
  • Acts 5:40–41They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
  • Matt 5:29–30If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
  • Job 35:3That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
  • Ezek 14:4Therefore speak to them, and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;
  • Dan 3:16–18Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
  • Matt 13:21yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
  • Job 34:7–9What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,
  • 1 Pet 4:15–16For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 36:21YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 36:21 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.