Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:
Parallel translations
- WEB “Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.
- BSB Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.
- NKJV Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, Nor will He uphold the evildoers.
- NASB “Behold, God will not reject a person of integrity, Nor will He help evildoers.
- NLT “But look, God will not reject a person of integrity, nor will he lend a hand to the wicked.
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
Bildad asserts that God will neither cast off a blameless man nor support evildoers. The principle is generally true but too rigidly applied to Job.
Overview
Bildad voices a real biblical conviction: God does not abandon the upright or sustain the wicked in the end. Yet by it he implies Job's affliction proves Job is not blameless, the very point the narrator has denied (Job 1:1). The book affirms God's faithfulness to the righteous while correcting the friends' simplistic timing of that justice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 4:7Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
- Ps 37:37Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
- Ps 37:24Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
- Isa 45:1Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
- Ps 94:14For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
- Job 21:30That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
- Job 9:22This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 8:20 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.