Job 34:5
in Job 34For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For Job hath said, I am righteous, And God hath taken away my right:
KJV
For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
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This verse in Job 34
Commentary
6 notes on this verseFor Job hath said, I am just, and God hath subverted my judgment. For in judging me there is falsehood: and mine arrow is violent without any sin. He complains that Job had spoken these things, [See chap. 27, 2] which the words of the sacred history prove on examination that he had never said. But he, who had sought for a judgment on equal terms, proceeds to promulgate a sentence from a fault of his own invention.
This site's exposition
I am righteous
on Job 34:5-9
Elihu tightens Job's complaints into one claim, “I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice”. Barnes notes that the man who “drinks up derision like water”, and the saying of verse 9, go further than anything Job said. Clarke calls verses 8 and 9 Elihu's weakest move.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Therefore, he proposes the argument of Job saying them, "since you have said, Job: I am a just man." He had said this already, "I will not desert my justification which I have begun to have." (27:6) Further he had shown his justice clearly in …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
For Job hath said, I am righteous,.... Not in express words, but what amounted to it: no doubt he was a righteous man in an evangelic sense, being justified by the righteousness of Christ, as all the Old Testament saints were, who looked to him and believed in him as the Lord their righteousness, and said, as the church in those times did, "surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength"; Isa 45:
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For Job hath said, I am righteous - see Job 13:18, “I know that I shall be justified;” compare Job 23:10-11, where he says, if he was tried he would come forth as gold. Elihu may have also referred to the general course of remark which he had pursued as vindicating himself. And God hath taken away my judgment - This sentiment is found in Job 27:2; see the notes at that place.
Job hath said, I am righteous - Job had certainly said the words attributed to him by Elihu, particularly in Job 27:2, etc., but it was in vindication of his aspersed character that he had asserted his own righteousness, and in a different sense to that in which Elihu appears to take it up. He asserted that he was righteous quoad the charges his friends had brought against him. And he never intimated that he had at all times a pure heart, and had never transgressed the laws of his Maker. It is true also that he said, God hath taken away my judgment; but he most obviously does not mean to charge God with injustice, but to show that he had dealt with him in a way wholly mysterious, and not according to the ordinary dispensations of his providence; and that he did not interpose in his behalf, while his friends were overwhelming him with obloquy and reproach.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אָ֭מַר | ʾamar | he has said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אִיּ֣וֹב | ʾiyov | Job | H347 → | 58 times |
| צָדַ֑קְתִּי | tzadakti | I am righteous | H6663 → | 41 times |
| וְ֝אֵ֗ל | veel | and God | H410 → | 241 times |
| הֵסִ֥יר | hesir | he has taken away | H5493 → | 299 times |
| מִשְׁפָּטִֽי׃ | mishpati | right my | H4941 → | 422 times |
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
אָ֭מַרhe has said
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
אִיּ֣וֹבJob
ʾiyovH347 →58 times
צָדַ֑קְתִּיI am righteous
tzadaktiH6663 →41 times
וְ֝אֵ֗לand God
veelH410 →241 times
הֵסִ֥ירhe has taken away
hesirH5493 →299 times
מִשְׁפָּטִֽי׃right my
mishpatiH4941 →422 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 33:9‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
it leads to
Through
Job 32:1So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
it leads to
- Job 33:9
‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
- Job 33:9
Through
Job 16:17yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
it leads to
- Proverbs 15:8
The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
- Psalms 66:18–19
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
- Proverbs 15:8
Through
Job 9:17For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.
it leads to
About Job
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.