It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
Parallel translations
- WEB “It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
- KJV This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
- NKJV It is all one thing; Therefore I say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the wicked.’
- NASB “It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys the guiltless and the wicked.’
- NLT Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God. That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and 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
Job protests that it is all the same, charging that God destroys both the blameless and the wicked. He voices a stark, despairing complaint.
Overview
In his pain Job lashes out, claiming God treats righteous and wicked alike, sweeping both away. This is the cry of a man who cannot reconcile his suffering with God's justice. It is honest lament rather than settled doctrine; the book as a whole upholds God's justice while acknowledging that its workings often lie hidden from us.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Eccl 9:1–3So 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.
- Luke 13:2–4To this He replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this fate?
- Ezek 21:3–4and tell her that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.
- Job 10:8Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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 9:22 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.