Bible Strands
Job 8:20
Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Bildad addresses Job during their debate, responding to Job’s lament by asserting that divine justice remains active despite current appearances.
The words — יִמְאַס (yim.'as) denotes active rejection, while יַחֲזִיק (ya.cha.Zik) describes taking hold of or strengthening someone’s hand.
The thread — The motif of God’s care for the upright and rejection of the wicked appears in Job 4:7, Psalms 37:37, and Psalms 37:24.
Why it lands — The text states that God neither abandons the blameless nor empowers evildoers, demanding the reader align expectation with divine justice rather than despair over present circumstances.
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
Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:
Cross-references
- Job 4:7 Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
- Psalms 37:37 Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
- Psalms 37:24 Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the LORD is holding his hand.
- Isaiah 45:1 This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:
- Psalms 94:14 For the LORD will not forsake His people; He will never abandon His heritage.
- Job 21:30 Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
- Job 9:22 It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’