Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 10th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Job 31:14

then what will I do when I must face God? What will I say when he asks me to explain what I did?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Employer;   Fear of God;   God Continued...;   Injustice;   Integrity;   Judgment;   Man;   Master;   Respect of Persons;   Servant;   Temptation;   Thompson Chain Reference - Business Life;   Capital and Labour;   Duty;   Employers (Masters);   Master's Duty;   Masters (Employers);   Social Duties;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Contempt;   Injustice;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Slave, Slavery;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Slave, Slavery;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Brotherhood (2);  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Brotherly Love;   Slaves and Slavery;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
what could I do when God stands up to judge?How should I answer him when he calls me to account?
Hebrew Names Version
What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?
King James Version
What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
English Standard Version
what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
New Century Version
how could I tell God what I did? What will I answer when he asks me to explain what I've done?
New English Translation
then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; when he intervenes, how will I respond to him?
Amplified Bible
What then could I do when God arises [to judge me]? When He calls me to account, what will I answer Him?
New American Standard Bible
What then could I do when God arises? And when He calls me to account, how am I to answer Him?
World English Bible
What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?
Geneva Bible (1587)
What then shal I do when God standeth vp? & when he shal visit me, what shal I answere?
Legacy Standard Bible
What then could I do when God arises?And when He calls me to account, with what will I respond to Him?
Berean Standard Bible
what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?
Contemporary English Version
Otherwise, what answer would I give to God when he judges me?
Complete Jewish Bible
then what would I do if God stood up? Were he to intervene, what answer could I give?
Darby Translation
What then should I do when God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?
George Lamsa Translation
Without saying, What then shall I do when God rises up in judgment, and when he inquires, what shall I answer him?
Good News Translation
If I did not, how could I then face God? What could I say when God came to judge me?
Lexham English Bible
then what shall I do when God rises up? And when he enquires, how shall I answer him?
Literal Translation
what then shall I do when God rises up? And when He calls me to account, what shall I answer Him?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But seynge that God wil sytt in iudgment, what shal I do? And for so moch as he wil nedes vyset me, what answere shal I geue him?
American Standard Version
What then shall I do when God riseth up? And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
Bible in Basic English
What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
What then shall I do when God riseth up? And when He remembereth, what shall I answer Him?
King James Version (1611)
What then shall I do, when God riseth vp? and when hee visiteth, what shall I answere him?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
When God will sit in iudgement, what shall I do? & when he will visite me, what aunswere shal I geue him?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? and if also he should at all visit me, can I make an answer?
English Revised Version
What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
What sotheli schal Y do, whanne God schal rise to deme? and whanne he schal axe, what schal Y answere to hym?
Update Bible Version
What then shall I do when God rises up? And when he visits, what shall I answer him?
Webster's Bible Translation
What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
New King James Version
What then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?
New Living Translation
how could I face God? What could I say when he questioned me?
New Life Bible
what will I do when God speaks to me? When He asks me why, what will I answer Him?
New Revised Standard
what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
What then could I have done when GOD rose up? And, when he visited, what could I have answered him?
Douay-Rheims Bible
For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?
Revised Standard Version
what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
Young's Literal Translation
Then what do I do when God ariseth? And when He doth inspect, What do I answer Him?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
What then could I do when God arises? And when He calls me to account, what will I answer Him?

Contextual Overview

9 "If I have desired another woman or waited at my neighbor's door to sin with his wife, 10 then let my wife serve someone else, and let other men sleep with her. 11 To do such a thing would be shameful, a sin that must be punished. 12 Such sin is like a fire that burns until it destroys everything. It would completely ruin my life's work. 13 "If I refused to be fair to my slaves when they had a complaint against me, 14 then what will I do when I must face God? What will I say when he asks me to explain what I did? 15 The one who made me in my mother's womb also made them. God shaped us all inside our mothers.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

What then: Job 9:32, Job 10:2, Psalms 7:6, Psalms 9:12, Psalms 9:19, Psalms 10:12-15, Psalms 44:21, Psalms 76:9, Psalms 143:2, Isaiah 10:3, Zechariah 2:13

when he: Hosea 9:7, Micah 7:4, Mark 7:2, James 2:13

what shall: Romans 3:19

Reciprocal: Job 10:7 - Thou knowest Matthew 8:6 - my 1 Thessalonians 4:6 - the Lord

Cross-References

Genesis 2:24
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife. In this way two people become one.
Genesis 29:24
(Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter to be her maid.)
Genesis 29:29
(Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her maid.)
Ruth 4:11
So all the elders and the people who were near the city gates said, "We are witnesses to all of this. And may the Lord bless this woman who is coming into your home to be like Rachel and Leah. They are the ones who had many children to make the people of Israel strong. And may you become powerful in the tribe of Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

What then shall I do when God riseth up?.... That is, if he had despised and rejected the cause of his servants, or had neglected, or refused to do them justice; he signifies he should be at the utmost loss to know what to do, what excuse to make, or what to say in his own defence, when God should rise up to defend the cause of the injured; either in a way of Providence in this life, or at the great day of judgment in the world to come, when everything will be brought to account, and masters and servants must stand alike before the judgment seat of God, to receive for the things they have done, whether good or evil:

and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? when he makes a visitation among men, either in this world, even in a fatherly way, visits transgressions, and reproves and corrects for them; had he been guilty of ill usage of his servants, he must have silently submitted to such visitations and chastisements, having nothing to say for himself why he should not be thus dealt with; or in the world to come, in the great day of visitation, when God shall make inquisition for sin, and seek it out, and call to an account for it; and should this be produced against him, even contempt of the cause of his servants, he was sensible he could not answer him for it, nor for anyone sin of a thousand, as no man will be able to do; but must be speechless, unless he has a better righteousness than his own to answer for him in that time to come. This is Job's first reason which deterred him from using his servants ill; another follows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

What then shall I do when God riseth up? - That is, when he rises up to pronounce sentence upon people, or to execute impartial justice. Job admits that if he had done injustice to a servant, he would have reason to dread the divine indignation, and that he could have no excuse. “I tremble,” said President Jefferson, speaking of slavery in the United States “when I remember that God is just!” Notes on Virginia.

And when he visiteth - When he comes to inspect human conduct. Umbreit renders it “when he punishes.” The word visit is often used in this sense in the Scriptures.


 
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