Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

King James Version (1611 Edition)

Job 34:9

For hee hath said, It profiteth a man nothing, that he should delight himselfe with 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.
Easy-to-Read Version
I know this because he says, ‘You will gain nothing if you try to please 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.'
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 Furthermore Elihu answered, and said, 2 Heare my wordes, O yee wise men, and giue eare vnto me, ye that haue knowledge. 3 For the eare trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meate. 4 Let vs chuse to vs iudgement: let vs know among our selues what is good. 5 For Iob hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my iudgement. 6 Should I lye against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression. 7 What man is like Iob, who drinketh vp scorning like water? 8 Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquitie, and walketh with wicked men. 9 For hee hath said, It profiteth a man nothing, that he should delight himselfe with 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 6:2
That the sonnes of God saw the daughters of men, that they were faire, and they took them wiues, of all which they chose.
Genesis 19:14
And Lot went out, and spake vnto his sonnes in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get yee out of this place: for the LORD wil destroy this citie: but hee seemed as one that mocked, vnto his sonnes in law.
Genesis 24:3
And I will make thee sweare by the LORD the God of heauen, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife vnto my sonne of the daughters of the Canaanites amongst whom I dwell.
Genesis 27:46
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life, because of the daughters of Heth: If Iacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life doe me?
Deuteronomy 7:3
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not giue vnto his sonne, nor his daughter shalt thou take vnto thy sonne.

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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile