Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
Job 4:17 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021 ‘Can mortals be righteous before God? Can humans be pure before their Maker? More versionsKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker? Amplified Bible - Classic Edition Can mortal man be just before God, or be more right than He is? Can a man be pure before his Maker, or be more cleansed than He is? [I John 1:7; Rev. 1:5.] American Standard Version (1901) Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Common English Bible “Can a human be more righteous than God, a person purer than their maker?” Catholic Public Domain Version Should man be justified in relation to God, or will a man be more pure than his Maker? Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version Shall man be justified in comparison of God; or shall a man be more pure than his maker? |
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
What are mortals, that they can be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
Did not he who made me in the womb make them? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
For I do not know how to flatter— or my Maker would soon put an end to me!
But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the night,
I will bring my knowledge from far away and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice:
Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?
“Indeed, I know that this is so, but how can a mortal be just before God?
Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.
You will be in the right, O Lord, when I lay charges against you, but let me put my case to you. Why does the way of the guilty prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it?
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”