TRV
Translation
King James Version
Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's?
Complete Jewish Bible
"Are you so convinced you are right, that you say, 'I am more just than God'?
American Standard Version
Thinkest thou this to be thy right, Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than God’s,
World English Bible Messianic
“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
Geneva Bible (1599)
Thinkest thou this right, that thou hast said, I am more righteous then God?
Young's Literal Translation
This hast thou reckoned for judgment: Thou hast said--`My righteousness is more than God's?'
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In the KJVVerse 13,723 of 31,102
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Commentary on Job 35 verses 1–8
1 ¶ Elihu spake moreover, and said,
2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's?
3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
We have here,
I. The bad words which Elihu charges upon Job, Job 35:2, Job 35:3. To evince the badness of them he appeals to Job himself, and his own sober thoughts, in the reflection: Thinkest thou this to be right? This intimates Elihu's confidence that the reproof he now gave was just, for he could refer the judgment of it even to Job himself. Those that have truth and equity on their side sooner or later will have every man's conscience on their side. It also intimates his good opinion of Job, that he thought better than he spoke, and that, though he had spoken amiss, yet, when he perceived his mistake, he would not stand to it. When we have said, in our haste, that which was not right, it becomes us to own that our second thoughts convince us that it was wrong. Two things Elihu here reproves Job for: - 1. For justifying himself more than God, which was the thing that first provoked him, Job 32:2. "Thou hast, in effect, said, My righteousness is more than God's," that is, "I have done more for God than ever he did for me; so that, when the accounts are balanced, he will be brought in debtor to me." As if Job thought his services had been paid less than they deserved and his sins punished more than they deserved, which is a most unjust and wicked thought for any man to harbour and especially to utter. When Job insisted so much upon his own integrity, and the severity of God's dealings with him, he did in effect say, My righteousness is more than God's; whereas, though we be ever so good and our afflictions ever so great, we are chargeable with unrighteousness and God is not. 2. For disowning the benefits and advantages of religion because he suffered these things: What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin? Job 35:3. This is gathered from Job 9:30, Job 9:31. Though I make my hands ever so clean, what the nearer am I? Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch. And Job 10:15, If I be wicked, woe to me; but, if I be righteous, it is all the same. The psalmist, when he compared his own afflictions with the prosperity of the wicked, was tempted to say, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, Psa 73:13. And, if Job said so, he did in effect say, My righteousness is more than God's (Job 35:9); for, if he got nothing by his religion, God was more beholden to him than he was to God. But, though there might be some colour for it, yet it was not fair to charge these words upon Job, when he himself had made them the wicked words of prospering sinners (Job 21:15, What profit shall we have if we pray to him?) and had immediately disclaimed them. The counsel of the wicked is far from me, Job 21:16. It is not a fair way of disputing to charge men with those consequences of their opinions which they expressly renounce.
II. The good answer which Elihu gives to this (Job 35:4): "I will undertake to answer thee, and thy companions with thee," that is, "all those that approve thy sayings and are ready to justify thee in them, and all others that say as thou sayest: "I have that to offer which will silence them all." To do this he has recourse to his old maxim (Job 33:12), that God is greater than man. This is a truth which, if duly improved, will serve many good purposes, and particularly this to prove that God is debtor to no man. The greatest of men may be a debtor to the meanest; but such is the infinite disproportion between God and man that the great God cannot possibly receive any benefit by man, and therefore cannot be supposed to lie under any obligation to man; for, if he be obliged by his purpose and promise, it is only to himself. That is a challenge which no man can take up (Rom 11:35), Who hath first given to God, let him prove it, and it shall be recompensed to him again. Why should we demand it, as a just debt, to gain by our religion (as Job seemed to do), when the God we serve does not gain by it? 1. Elihu needs not prove that God is above man; it is agreed by all; but he endeavours to affect Job and us with it, by an ocular demonstration of the height of the heavens and the clouds, Job 35:5. They are far above us, and God is far above them; how much then is he set out of the reach either of our sins or of our services! Look unto the heavens, and behold the clouds. God made man erect, coelumque tueri jussit - and bade him look up to heaven. Idolaters looked up, and worshipped the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; but we must look up to heaven, and worship the Lord of those hosts. They are higher than we, but God is infinitely above them. His glory is above the heavens (Psa 8:1) and the knowledge of him higher than heaven, Job 11:8. 2. But hence he infers that God is not affected, either one way or other, by any thing that we do. (1.) He owns that men may be either bettered or damaged by what we do (Job 35:8): Thy wickedness, perhaps, may hurt a man as thou art, may occasion him trouble in his outward concerns. A wicked man may wound, or rob, or slander his neighbour, or may draw him into sin and so prejudice his soul. Thy righteousness, thy justice, thy charity, thy wisdom, thy piety, may perhaps profit the son of man. Our goodness extends to the saints that are in the earth, Psa 16:3. To men like ourselves we are in a capacity either of doing injury or of showing kindness; and in both these the sovereign Lord and Judge of all will interest himself, will reward those that do good and punish those that do hurt to their fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects. But, (2.) He utterly denies that God can really be either prejudiced or advantaged by what any, even the greatest men of the earth, do, or can do. [1.] The sins of the worst sinners are no damage to him (Job 35:6): "If thou sinnest wilfully, and of malice prepense, against him, with a high hand, nay, if thy transgressions be multiplied, and the acts of sin be ever so often repeated, yet what doest thou against him?" This is a challenge to the carnal mind, and defies the most daring sinner to do his worst. It speaks much for the greatness and glory of God that it is not in the power of his worst enemies to do him any real prejudice. Sin is said to be against God because so the sinner intends it and so God takes it, and it is an injury to his honour; yet it cannot do any thing against him. The malice of sinners is impotent malice: it cannot destroy his being or perfections, cannot dethrone him from his power and dominion, cannot disturb his peace and repose, cannot defeat his counsels and designs, nor can it derogate from his essential glory. Job therefore spoke amiss in saying What profit is it that I am cleansed from my sin? God was no gainer by his reformation; and who then would gain if he himself did not? [2.] The services of the best saints are no profit to him (Job 35:7): If thou be righteous, what givest thou to him? He needs not our service; or, if he did want to have the work done, he has better hands than ours at command. Our religion brings no accession at all to his felicity. He is so far from being beholden to us that we are beholden to him for making us righteous and accepting our righteousness; and therefore we can demand nothing from him, nor have any reason to complain if we have not what we expect, but to be thankful that we have better than we deserve.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–8. Public domain.
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Gregory the DialogistAD 604
15. Every one observes, who reads the text of the history, that blessed Job did not say that he was more righteous than God. But he says, Let Him put forth equity against me, and my judgment shall come to victory. [Job 23, 7. Vulg.] Examining namely his life, and not knowing the reasons of his smiting, as has been often observed, he believed that he was scourged for the sake of washing away his sins, and not of increasing his merits. And he was therefore confident, that his judgment would come to victory, because he found in himself no fault, for which he deserved to be smitten. Which thing indeed the Lord also said of him to the devil; Thou hast moved Me against him, to afflict him without cause. [Job 2, 3] What had he sinned then, by speaking thus, who, unknowingly, agreed, in these words, with the divine and secret sentence upon himself? Or what harm is there, if, in the judgment of men, our words differ, on the surface, from the exactness of truth, when, in that on which they turn in the heart, they are closely joined to, and agree with, it. [‘cordis cardine’] The ears of men consider our words to be such as they sound outwardly, but the divine judgments hear them as they are uttered from our inmost heart. Among men, our heart is judged of from our words, but with God, our words are judged of from our heart. Whilst blessed Job, then said without, that, which God said within, he justly uttered every thing which he said, inasmuch as he, piously, did not differ from the Inner sentence. Although in that which he said, filled by the spirit of Prophecy, Let Him put forth Equity against me, and my judgment shall come to victory, he might be looking for the presence of our Redeemer. For He, Who is the Virtue and the Wisdom of the Father, may be, not improperly, considered as His Equity. Whence it is written, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification. [1 Cor. l, 30] And because, namely, God has placed this Equity against sinners who fly from Him, by exhibiting It Incarnate, He recalled them at once from their iniquity; and, in that judgment in which it found the Equity of God opposing its ways, mankind has overcome its ancient opponent.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 26.14-15
“Elihu therefore spoke these words again.” Everyone who says many things is always anxious to begin his speech once again, in order … to keep his hearers in suspense, so that they may be the more attentively silent, the more they expect, as it were, to hear some new thing. But Elihu, finishing one subject, begins another without delay, in order that his loquacity may be continued without limit by beginnings being constantly joined. It follows, “Does your thought seem right to you, that you said, I am more righteous than God?” Everyone observes, who reads the text of the history, that blessed Job did not say that he was more righteous than God. But he says, “Let him put forth equity against me, and my judgment shall come to victory.” Examining his life without knowing the reasons of his smiting, as has been often observed, Job believed that he was scourged for the sake of washing away his sins and not the increasing of his merits. He was therefore confident that his judgment would come to victory, because he found in himself no fault for which he deserved to be smitten. This indeed the Lord also said of him to the devil, “You have moved me against him, to afflict him without cause.” What had Job sinned then, by speaking in this way, who unknowingly agreed in these words with the divine and secret sentence on himself? Or what harm is there, if, in the judgment of people, our words differ on the surface from the exactness of truth, when, in that on which they turn in the heart, they are closely joined to and agree with it? The ears of people consider our words to be such as they sound outwardly, but the divine judgments hear them as they are uttered from our inmost heart.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Job 35:2 captures Elihu's sharp accusation against Job, asserting that Job's persistent self-justification and questioning of divine justice implicitly suggest his own righteousness surpasses God's. This verse initiates Elihu's third speech, revealing his perception of Job's profound spiritual error as an arrogant claim of moral superiority over the Almighty, thereby setting the stage for Elihu's subsequent theological arguments concerning God's transcendent justice and the proper human posture of humility and submission.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Elihu masterfully employs a Rhetorical Question to challenge Job's perceived arrogance. This question is not posed to elicit an answer, but rather to make a forceful, declarative assertion about the impropriety and theological danger of Job's stance. The accusation itself is imbued with Hyperbole, as Elihu exaggerates Job's position to underscore what he considers its blasphemous implications; Job never explicitly claimed his righteousness was greater than God's, but Elihu interprets his persistent complaints as implying this. There is also a strong element of Irony present, given that Job, who is genuinely described as blameless and upright by God at the outset of the book, is now accused of self-righteousness by Elihu. Furthermore, Elihu's speech demonstrates Argumentation by Implication, where he deduces a damning conclusion from Job's words that Job himself might not have consciously intended, but which Elihu believes is the logical and unavoidable outcome of Job's unwavering complaints and challenges to divine justice.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 35:2 profoundly encapsulates a critical theological tension within the book: the immense, often incomprehensible, disparity between finite human understanding of justice and God's perfect, transcendent righteousness. Elihu's accusation, though potentially a misrepresentation of Job's heart, powerfully highlights the inherent human tendency to measure God by our limited, often self-serving, standards, particularly when we are experiencing suffering or perceive injustice. It compels us to deeply consider whether our complaints, lamentations, or self-justifications ever subtly imply that we possess a superior moral compass or a clearer understanding of "right" than the Almighty Creator. Ultimately, this verse serves as a profound and sobering reminder of the absolute necessity of humility before a God whose ways are infinitely higher than our own, whose wisdom is unfathomable, and whose justice is beyond human reproach or full comprehension.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 35:2 functions as a timeless spiritual mirror, compelling us to introspectively examine our own attitudes and responses when confronted with life's profound difficulties, inexplicable suffering, or perceived injustices. While it is a natural human inclination to question and seek understanding in moments of intense pain or confusion, this verse issues a stern caution against allowing our questioning to subtly transform into an implicit judgment of God's character, or worse, a veiled assertion of our own moral superiority. It actively encourages us to cultivate a posture of profound humility, recognizing that God's wisdom, justice, and sovereign plan immeasurably transcend our finite comprehension. True spiritual maturity, as suggested by this verse, involves learning to trust God's inherent goodness and perfect righteousness even when His ways appear inscrutable or His actions seem contradictory to our expectations. It calls us to resist the powerful temptation to believe that our own limited sense of "right" or "fairness" is the ultimate standard by which the Almighty should be measured, fostering instead a spirit of reverent submission and unwavering trust in His infinite, benevolent wisdom.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Did Job actually say his righteousness was "more than God's"?
Answer: No, Job never explicitly uttered these precise words. Elihu's statement in Job 35:2 is best understood as his interpretation, or perhaps an exaggeration, of Job's persistent self-justification and his unwavering assertions of innocence in the face of immense suffering. Throughout the book, Job repeatedly declared his blamelessness and questioned why a righteous man like himself was enduring such calamity (e.g., Job 27:6). Elihu, however, perceived these laments and defenses as implicitly challenging God's justice and suggesting that Job's own moral standard was somehow superior to God's dealings. This reflects a common interpretive leap in theological debates, where one party attributes a logical conclusion to another's statements, even if not explicitly stated by the original speaker.
What is the significance of Elihu's role in the book of Job?
Answer: Elihu, introduced in Job 32:6, enters the debate after Job's three friends have exhausted their arguments and failed to convince Job. He positions himself as a younger, yet divinely inspired, voice, claiming to have fresh insight from God. Elihu's speeches (chapters 32-37) serve several crucial purposes: he critiques both Job (for his perceived self-righteousness and challenging God) and the three friends (for their inability to answer Job effectively and their rigid adherence to the retribution principle). He emphasizes God's absolute transcendence, His justice, and His use of suffering not solely as punishment for sin, but also as a means of instruction, discipline, and purification. While he shares some theological common ground with the friends (e.g., God is just), his unique contribution lies in his profound focus on God's incomprehensibility and the pedagogical purpose of suffering, thereby setting the stage for God's direct intervention and ultimate revelation in Job 38 and subsequent chapters.
How does this verse relate to the broader theme of human suffering and divine justice?
Answer: Job 35:2 directly confronts the core tension of the entire book of Job: how a just God can allow a righteous person to suffer. Elihu's accusation highlights the inherent danger of human pride and the powerful temptation to judge God based on our limited, often self-centered, understanding of justice. The verse forces the reader to grapple with the vast, unbridgeable chasm between finite human comprehension and infinite divine wisdom. It underscores that while suffering is undeniably real and painful, our appropriate response should not be to accuse God or to elevate our own sense of justice above His. Instead, it points to the profound need for humility and unwavering trust in God's ultimate righteousness, even when His ways are mysterious and His purposes are inscrutable. This theme is powerfully affirmed by God's own speeches later in the book (e.g., Job 40), which ultimately silence Job's complaints and lead him to a posture of humble submission.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Job 35:2, spoken by Elihu, stands as a sharp critique of Job's perceived self-righteousness, it inadvertently illuminates humanity's profound need for a righteousness that truly transcends our own, a perfect righteousness that can stand blameless before God. Job, in his human frailty, could only assert his relative blamelessness, yet even that was interpreted as a challenge to divine justice. The ultimate and perfect fulfillment of true righteousness is found solely in Jesus Christ, who alone lived a life of absolute perfection, fulfilling every demand of God's law (as seen in Matthew 3:15). He is the only one whose "righteousness" was indeed "more" than any human could achieve, not in a competitive sense against God, but as the very embodiment of God's perfect standard. Furthermore, Christ's suffering, unlike Job's, was entirely innocent and profoundly redemptive, for "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus, what Elihu wrongly accused Job of, Christ perfectly accomplished: He provided a divine righteousness that is freely imputed to believers, making us righteous in God's sight, not through our own flawed efforts but through His perfect life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection, a truth beautifully articulated in Philippians 3:9.