Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
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.
Quick answer
Elihu warns Job to take heed and not turn to iniquity, which he has chosen over affliction. He cautions against sinful responses to suffering.
Overview
Elihu charges Job to beware of choosing iniquity instead of patiently bearing affliction. The implication is that turning to sin is a worse path than enduring trial faithfully. This warns that suffering, though painful, must never become an occasion for sin, echoing the call to remain steadfast and faithful under trial as Christ Himself did (1 Pet. 2:21-23).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 66:18If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.
- Heb 11:25choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time;
- 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.
- 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;
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Job 35:3That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
- 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.
- Dan 3:16–18Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
- 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
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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 36:21 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
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