to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.
Parallel translations
- WEB To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
- KJV To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not.
- NKJV Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve.
- NASB To defraud someone in his lawsuit— Of these things the Lord does not approve.
- NLT if they twist justice in the courts— doesn’t the Lord see all these things?
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
To subvert someone's legal cause is something the Lord does not approve.
Overview
Completing the triad of verses 34-36, this line declares God's clear disapproval of corrupting justice in lawsuits. The repeated point is that the Lord sees every injustice and condemns it. Though He uses suffering for discipline, He never endorses human wickedness, and He will finally judge all wrong (Eccl. 12:14; Acts 17:31).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Isa 59:15Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
- Hab 1:13Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
- Jer 22:3This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.
- 2 Sam 11:27And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:36 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.