Job 35:4
in Job 35I will reply to you and to your friends as well.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I will answer thee, And thy companions with thee.
KJV
I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
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This verse in Job 35
Commentary
8 notes on this verseI will therefore answer thy words, and thy friends with thee. In his former saying, he mentioned culpable words, as if those of blessed Job, and derived from them matter for his remarks. But, in the words which follow, he examines, with great acuteness, that, which he craftily invented as matter to speak upon. And the sentiments which follow are powerful, but are not applicable to the character of blessed Job; and the shafts of this reproof strike him the less, the more unjustly they are launched against him.
This site's exposition
And Elihu went on to say
on Job 35:1-4
Elihu opens his third speech by restating a charge against Job. Henry notes that Elihu summarizes Job instead of quoting him, tightening what Job argued in chapters 9 and 10 into one hard claim. Gill reads verse 3, “What does it profit me”, as Job's question turned into a complaint.
This site's exposition
to your friends as well
Albert Barnes takes the friends as Eliphaz above all, who raised the same question at Job 22:2 and turned to harsh charges. Elihu means to explain it more fully. Matthew Henry says Elihu falls back on the maxim of Job 33:12, that God is greater than man.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
He concludes from this that he is compelled to answer because of their absurdity, and so he says, "That is why I will answer your discourses and at the same time those of your friends," who could not convince you when you said such things.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): " I will undertake to answer thee, and thy companions with thee, " that is, "all those that approve thy sayings and are ready to justify thee in them, and all others that say as thou sayest: "I have that to offer which will silence them all." To do this he has recourse to his old maxim ( ch. xxxiii. 12 ), that God is greater than man.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I will answer thee - I will show thee the evil of a sinful way, and the benefit of righteousness; and supply what thy friends have omitted in their discourses with thee.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will answer thee - Margin, “return to thee words.” Elihu meant to explain this more fully than it had been done by the friends of Job, and to show where Job was in error. And thy companions with thee - Eliphaz, in Job 22:2, had taken up the same inquiry, and proposed to discuss the subject, but he had gone at once into severe charges against Job, and been drawn into language of harsh crimination, instead of making the matter clear, and Elihu now proposes to state just how it is, and to remove the objections of Job. It may be doubted, however, whether he was much more successful than Eliphaz had been. The doctrine of the future state, as it is revealed by Christianity, was needful to enable these speakers to comprehend and explain this subject.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲ֭נִי | ʾani | I | H589 → | 874 times |
| אֲשִֽׁיבְךָ֣ | ʾashivekha | I will respond to you | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| מִלִּ֑ין | milin | words | H4405 → | 38 times |
| וְֽאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| רֵעֶ֥יךָ | reeikha | friends your | H7453 → | 188 times |
| עִמָּֽךְ׃ | ʾimakh | with you | H5973 → | 1050 times |
אֲ֭נִיI
ʾaniH589 →874 times
אֲשִֽׁיבְךָ֣I will respond to you
ʾashivekhaH7725 →1056 times
מִלִּ֑יןwords
milinH4405 →38 times
וְֽאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
רֵעֶ֥יךָfriends your
reeikhaH7453 →188 times
עִמָּֽךְ׃with you
ʾimakhH5973 →1050 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
Proverbs 13:20He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:33–34
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- Proverbs 15:31
He who listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.
- Proverbs 9:6
Leave your folly behind, and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”
- 2 Corinthians 6:14–18
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
- Psalms 119:63
I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33–34
Through
Job 34:8He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men.
it leads to
- Psalms 1:1
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
- Proverbs 13:20
He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- Psalms 1:1
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.