Berean Study Bible (BSB) Reader

Job 35

A calm reading view. Notes and saves remain available.

Current outline context

The Debates of Job 3:1–37:24
How Can I Contend with God? 9:1–35
Job Does Not Fear God 15:1–35
The Speeches of Elihu 32:1–37:24
Elihu Confirms God’s Justice 34:1–37

Find a verse

Search Scripture

Open a passage

Passage selector

1 And Elihu went on to say:

2 “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’

3 For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

4 I will reply to you and to your friends as well.

5 Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.

6 If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?

7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?

8 Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.

9 Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

10 But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,

11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

12 There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.

13 Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it.

14 How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

15 and further, that in His anger He has not punished or taken much notice of folly!

16 So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”

Recommended for this study

Study connections for Job 35

Dictionary

Heaven

(1.) Definitions. The phrase "heaven and earth" is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens, (a) The firmament, as "fowls of the heaven" (Gen. 2:19; 7:3, 23; Ps. 8:8, etc.), "the eagles of heaven" (Lam. 4:19), etc. (b) The starry heavens (Deut. 17:3; Jer. 8:2; Matt. 24:29). (c) "The heaven of heavens," or "the third heaven" (Deut. 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 115:16; 148:4; 2 Cor. 12:2). (2.) Meaning of words in the original, (a) The usual Hebrew word for "heavens" is shamayim, a plural form meaning "heights," "elevations" (Gen. 1:1; 2:1). (b) The Hebrew word marom is also used (Ps. 68:18; 93:4; 102:19, etc.) as equivalent to shamayim, "high places," "heights." (c) Heb. galgal, literally a "wheel," is rendered "heaven" in Ps. 77:18 (R.V., "whirlwind"). (d) Heb. shahak, rendered "sky" (Deut. 33:26; Job 37:18; Ps. 18:11), plural "clouds" (Job 35:5; 36:28; Ps. 68:34, marg. "heavens"), means probably the firmament. (e) Heb. rakia is closely connected with (d), and is rendered "firmamentum" in the Vulgate, whence our "firmament" (Gen. 1:6; Deut. 33:26, etc.), regarded as a solid expanse. (3.) Metaphorical meaning of term. Isa. 14:13, 14; "doors of heaven" (Ps. 78:23); heaven "shut" (1 Kings 8:35); "opened" (Ezek. 1:1). (See 1 Chr. 21:16.) (4.) Spiritual meaning. The place of the everlasting blessedness of the righteous; the abode of departed spirits. (a) Christ calls it his "Father's house" (John 14:2). (b) It is called "paradise" (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7). (c) "The heavenly Jerusalem" (Gal. 4: 26; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 3:12). (d) The "kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 25:1; James 2:5). (e) The "eternal kingdom" (2 Pet. 1:11). (f) The "eternal inheritance" (1 Pet. 1:4; Heb. 9:15). (g) The "better country" (Heb. 11:14, 16). (h) The blessed are said to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," and to be "in Abraham's bosom" (Luke 16:22; Matt. 8:11); to "reign with Christ" (2 Tim. 2:12); and to enjoy "rest" (Heb. 4:10, 11). In heaven the blessedness of the righteous consists in the possession of "life everlasting," "an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17), an exemption from all sufferings for ever, a deliverance from all evils (2 Cor. 5:1, 2) and from the society of the wicked (2 Tim. 4:18), bliss without termination, the "fulness of joy" for ever (Luke 20:36; 2 Cor. 4:16, 18; 1 Pet. 1:4; 5:10; 1 John 3:2). The believer's heaven is not only a state of everlasting blessedness, but also a "place", a place "prepared" for them (John 14:2).

Questions about this chapter

No public questions are linked to Job 35 yet.

Ask about Job 35