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

Easy-to-Read Version

Job 34:9

I know this because he says, ‘You will gain nothing if you try to please God.'

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blasphemy;   Infidelity;   Thompson Chain Reference - Godless;   Godlessness;   Righteousness-Unrighteousness;  

Dictionaries:

- Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Elihu;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Job, Book of;   Shebna;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For he has said, “A man gains nothingwhen he becomes God’s friend.”
Hebrew Names Version
For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing That he should delight himself with God.'
King James Version
For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
English Standard Version
For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.'
New Century Version
because he says, ‘It is no use to try to please God.'
New English Translation
For he says, ‘It does not profit a man when he makes his delight with God.'
Amplified Bible
"For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing When he takes delight and is pleased with God and obeys Him.'
New American Standard Bible
"For he has said, 'It is of no use to a man When he becomes friends with God.'
World English Bible
For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing That he should delight himself with God.'
Geneva Bible (1587)
For he hath saide, It profiteth a man nothing that he should walke with God.
Legacy Standard Bible
For he has said, ‘It is of no use to a manWhen he is pleased with God.'
Berean Standard Bible
For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.'
Contemporary English Version
because he has said, "It doesn't pay to please God."
Complete Jewish Bible
since he thinks, ‘It profits a person nothing to be in accord with God'?
Darby Translation
For he hath said, It profiteth not a man if he delight himself in God.
George Lamsa Translation
For he has said that a man is not justified because he fears God.
Good News Translation
He says that it never does any good to try to follow God's will.
Lexham English Bible
Indeed, he says, ‘A man does not profit when he takes delight in God.'
Literal Translation
For he has said, It is no benefit for a man when he is accepted with God.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For he saieth: Though a ma be good, yet is he naught before God.
American Standard Version
For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing That he should delight himself with God.
Bible in Basic English
For he has said, It is no profit to a man to take delight in God.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For he hath said: 'It profiteth a man nothing that he should be in accord with God.'
King James Version (1611)
For hee hath said, It profiteth a man nothing, that he should delight himselfe with God.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For he hath sayde, It profiteth a man nothing that he shoulde walke with God.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For thou shouldest not say, There shall be no visitation of a man, whereas there is a visitation on him from the Lord.
English Revised Version
For he hath said, it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For he seide, A man schal not plese God, yhe, thouy he renneth with God.
Update Bible Version
For he has said, It profits a [noble] man nothing That he should delight himself with God.
Webster's Bible Translation
For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
New King James Version
For he has said, "It profits a man nothing That he should delight in God.'
New Living Translation
He has even said, ‘Why waste time trying to please God?'
New Life Bible
For he has said, ‘A man gets nothing by trying to please God.'
New Revised Standard
For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.'
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For he hath said, It profiteth not a man, when, his good pleasure, is with God.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For he hath said: Man shall not please God, although he run with him.
Revised Standard Version
For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.'
Young's Literal Translation
For he hath said, `It doth not profit a man, When he delighteth himself with God.'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing When he is pleased with God.'

Contextual Overview

1 Then Elihu continued his speech: 2 "Listen to what I say, you wise men. Pay attention, you who know so much. 3 Your tongue tastes the food it touches, and your ear tests the words it hears. 4 So let us test these arguments and decide for ourselves what is right. Together we will learn what is good. 5 Job says, ‘I am innocent, and God is not being fair to me. 6 I am right, but I am judged to be a liar. I have done no wrong, but I am badly hurt.' 7 "Would anyone but Job say such things? He has more thirst for insulting God than for water. 8 He is a friend of evil people. He likes to spend time with the wicked. 9 I know this because he says, ‘You will gain nothing if you try to please God.'

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

It: Job 9:22, Job 9:23, Job 9:30, Job 9:31, Job 21:14-16, Job 21:30, Job 22:17, Job 35:3, Malachi 3:14

delight: Job 27:10, Psalms 37:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 25:32 - and what Job 21:15 - and what Job 22:26 - shalt thou Job 33:27 - it profited Job 34:36 - his answers Psalms 73:13 - Verily Isaiah 58:14 - delight Romans 8:33 - Who

Cross-References

Genesis 19:14
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, the men who had married his other daughters. He said, "Hurry and leave this city! The Lord will soon destroy it!" But they thought he was joking.
Genesis 24:3
Now I want you to make a promise to me. Promise to me before the Lord , the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry a girl from Canaan. We live among these people, but don't let him marry a Canaanite girl.
Genesis 27:46
Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "Your son Esau married Hittite women. I am very upset about this, because they are not our people. I'll have nothing to live for if Jacob marries one of these women!"
Deuteronomy 7:3
Don't marry any of them, and don't let your sons or daughters marry any of the people from those other nations.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For he hath said,.... Not plainly and expressly, but consequentially; what it was thought might be inferred from what he had said, particularly in Job 9:22;

it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God; in his house and ordinances, ways and worship; he may as well indulge himself in the pleasures of sin, and in the delights of the world, if God destroys the perfect and the wicked, as Job had said in the place referred to; if this be the case, it is in vain to serve God, and pray unto him, or keep his ordinances; which are the language and sentiments of wicked men, and according to which they act, see Job 21:14 Malachi 3:14. Mr. Broughton renders it,

"when he would walk with God;''

and so the Targum,

"in his walking with God;''

and another Targum,

"in his running with God:''

though he walks and even runs in the way of his commandments, yet it is of no advantage to him; or he does the will of God, as Aben Ezra; or seeks to please him or be acceptable to him, and to find grace in his sight. Whereas though love and hatred are not known by prosperity and adversity, but both come to good and bad men, which seems to be Job's meaning in the above place, from whence this inference is deduced; yet it is certain that godliness is profitable to all, 1 Timothy 4:8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself in God - That is, there is no advantage in piety, and in endeavoring to serve God. It will make no difference in the divine dealings with him. He will be treated just as well if he lives a life of sin, as if he undertakes to live after the severest rules of piety. Job had not used precisely this language, but in Job 9:22, he had expressed nearly the same sentiment. It is probable, however, that Elihu refers to what he regarded as the general scope and tendency of his remarks, as implying that there was no respect paid to character in the divine dealings with mankind. It was easy to pervert the views which Job actually entertained, so as to make him appear to maintain this sentiment, and it was probably with a special view to this charge that Job uttered the sentiments recorded in Job 21:0; see the notes at that chapter.


 
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