Job 35:3

Job 35:3 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
• English Standard Version (ESV)that you ask, 'What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?'
• New King James Version (NKJV)For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
• New Living Translation (NLT)For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me? What’s the use of living a righteous life?’

Context of Job 35:3

1Then Elihu said: 2“Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am in the right, not God.’ Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning?’ 4“I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you. 5Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.

Job 35:3 word by word

כִּֽי־תֹ֭אמַר מַה־יִּסְכָּן־לָ֑ךְ מָֽה־אֹ֝עִ֗יל מֵֽחַטָּאתִֽי׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• For thou saidstאָמַר'âmar · to sayH559
• What advantageסָכַןsâkan · be usefulH5532
• What profitיָעַלya‛al · to gainH3276
• from my sinחַטָּאתchaţţâ'âh chaţţâ'th · sinH2403

Cross-references for Job 35:3

• Job 9:21“Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.
• Job 10:15If I am guilty—woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction.
• Job 21:15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?’
• Job 31:2For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high?
• Job 34:9For he says, ‘There is no profit in trying to please God.’
• Psalms 73:13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.
• Malachi 3:14“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty?

Commentaries on Job 35:3

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3What advantage will it be unto thee? - As if he had said to God, "My righteousness cannot profit thee, nor do I find that it is of any benefit to myself." Or perhaps Elihu makes here a general assertion, which he afterwards endeavors to exemplify: Thou hast been reasoning how it may profit thee, and thou hast said, "What profit shall I have in righteousness more than in sin?"Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3For thou saidst - Another sentiment of a similar kind which Elihu proposes to examine. He had already adverted to this sentiment of Job in Job 34:9, and examined it at some length, and had shown in reply to it that God could not be unjust, and that there was great impropriety when man presumed to arraign the justice of the Most High. He now adverts to it again in order to show that God could not be benefited or injured by the conduct of man, and that he…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. Rather, explanatory of "this" in Job 35:2, "That thou sayest (to thyself, as if a distinct person) What advantage is it (thy integrity) to thee? What profit have I (by integrity) more than (I should have) by my sin?" that is, more than if I had sinned (Job 34:9). Job had said that the wicked, who use these very words, do not suffer for it (Job 21:13-15); whereby he virtually sanctioned their sentiments. The same change of persons from oblique to direct…Read the comment

Topics related to Job 35:3

• Infidelity
• Man

In the dictionaries

• Advantage
• Elihu
• Heaven

Commentaries on Job 35

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary