Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
- KJV Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
- NKJV “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off?
- NASB ¶“Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed?
- NLT “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?
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
Eliphaz claims the innocent never perish and the upright are never cut off. This states his flawed retribution principle.
Overview
Eliphaz argues that no truly innocent person is ever destroyed, implying Job's calamities prove guilt. This rigid doctrine of exact earthly retribution is the friends' core error, which God later rebukes. The cross overturns it decisively, for the wholly innocent Christ was cut off, yet for our salvation rather than His own sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 37:25I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
- 2 Pet 2:9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- Job 36:7He does not take His eyes off the righteous, but He enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.
- Acts 28:4When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”
- Job 8:20Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.
- Eccl 7:15In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
- Eccl 9:1–2So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.
- Job 9:22–23It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
Resources, by level
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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 4:7 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.