Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
- BSB Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
- 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 have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
- 2 Pet 2:9The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
- Job 36:7He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted.
- Acts 28:4And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
- Job 8:20Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:
- Eccl 7:15All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
- Eccl 9:1–2For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
- Job 9:22–23This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
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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 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.