Who has appointed His way for Him, or told Him, ‘You have done wrong’?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
- KJV Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?
- NKJV Who has assigned Him His way, Or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’?
- NASB “Who has appointed Him His way, And who has said, ‘You have done wrong’?
- NLT No one can tell him what to do, or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’
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
No one has prescribed God's way for Him, and none can charge Him with wrongdoing. God is accountable to no one and is wholly just.
Overview
Elihu affirms that God acts according to His own perfect counsel, with no one able to direct Him or convict Him of injustice. This guards God's absolute sovereignty and righteousness (Rom. 9:20; Deut. 32:4). The verse humbles every human complaint against God and assures us that the Judge of all the earth does right, a confidence vindicated at the cross where justice and mercy meet.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Cor 2:16“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
- Isa 40:13–14Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?
- Job 8:3Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
- 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 34:13–33Who gave Him charge over the earth? Who appointed Him over the whole world?
- Job 34:10Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly.
- Eph 1:11In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,
- Rom 11:34“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
- Rom 9:14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!
- Rom 3:5But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.
- Job 40:8Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 36:23 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.