It is all one thing; Therefore I say, ‘He destroys 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.
- BSB It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both 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 laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.
- Luke 13:2–4Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things?
- Ezek 21:3–4Tell the land of Israel, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.
- Job 10:8“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.