I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?
- BSB “Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?
- NKJV “Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God?
- NASB “In truth I know that this is so; But how can a person be in the right with God?
- NLT “Yes, I know all this is true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in God’s sight?
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 grants that God is just, but asks the profound question: how can a mortal be righteous before God? It anticipates the gospel's answer of justification by grace.
Overview
Job agrees with the friends that God is righteous, yet raises the deeper issue: no human can be declared right in a dispute with the infinite, holy God. This question echoes through Scripture and finds its answer only in Christ, through whom sinners are justified by faith (Romans 3:20-24). Job feels the problem keenly without yet seeing its resolution.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 4:17Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
- Job 25:4How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
- Ps 143:2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
- Rom 3:20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
- Job 32:2Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.
- 1 Kgs 8:46If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
- Job 33:9I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
- Job 34:5For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
- Job 14:3–4And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?
- Ps 130:3If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:2 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.