Bible Strands
Job 35:8
Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job during the poetic dialogues, responding to Job’s insistence that his personal righteousness should compel divine intervention. He speaks at the moment Job demands accountability while assuming his moral standing dictates God’s actions.
The words — רִשְׁעֶ֑ךָ (rish'E.kha) translates as your wickedness, and צִדְקָתֶֽךָ (tzid.ka.Te.cha) translates as your righteousness. The parallel structure places both terms in the same grammatical frame to show they share the same sphere of impact.
The thread — The text states that human moral conduct affects only other humans, contrasting with Genesis 18:24 and Genesis 19:29 where righteous presence alters earthly circumstances. This aligns with Job 35:7, which notes that human righteousness adds nothing to God, and Job 35:9, which shows that human suffering still prompts cries for deliverance.
Why it lands — The verse states that moral actions produce human consequences rather than divine obligations. It requires the reader to abandon transactional religion, recognize the limited scope of human merit, and direct appeals for justice toward God’s character rather than personal achievement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
Cross-references
- Genesis 12:2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
- Genesis 18:24 What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there?
- Genesis 19:29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Joshua 7:1 The Israelites, however, acted unfaithfully regarding the things devoted to destruction. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart. So the anger of the LORD burned against the Israelites.
- Joshua 22:20 Was not Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath upon the whole congregation of Israel? Yet it was not only Achan who perished because of his sin!’”
- Job 42:8 So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”
- Psalms 106:23 So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.
- Psalms 106:30 But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.
- Ecclesiastes 9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
- Ezekiel 22:30 I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.