“If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?”
Elihu asserts that if Job sins, 'What do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?' suggesting that human sin does not harm God or diminish him. This verse is the keystone of Elihu's fifth discourse: human moral transgression, while morally significant, does not affect God himself. God is so transcendent that human sin, multiplied to any degree, does not touch or diminish him. By extension, human righteousness also does not benefit God. This principle will lead Elihu to conclude that Job's complaint about injustice is misguided because it presupposes that God has something at stake in Job's conduct, which Elihu denies. Yet the verse raises a profound theological question: if human action does not affect God, in what sense is God genuinely responsive to human conduct? Does not the doctrine of divine transcendence threaten to render divine justice meaningless if God is genuinely unmoved by human action? Elihu's attempt to protect divine transcendence through this principle may actually undermine the coherence of divine justice itself.
Church Fathers on Job 35:6
—7. Look unto the heaven, and see, and behold the sky, that it is higher than thou. If thou hast sinned, what wilt thou hurt Him? If thine iniquities have been multiplied, what wilt thou do against Him? If, moreover, thou hast acted justly, what wilt thou give Him, or what will He receive of thy hand? Although these words ought not to have been said to blessed Job, who knew greater truths, yet the things, which are said, are true, namely, that neither do our sins hurt God,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!