This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
Parallel translations
- WEB “It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
- BSB It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless 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 9:1–3For 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.
- Luke 13:2–4And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
- Ezek 21:3–4And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
- Job 10:8Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 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.