What Does Job 35:2 Mean in the King James?
Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word “right” is a verdict under examination, so the claim to be more righteous than God cannot certify itself.
THE MEANING
The verse asks whether your own alignment can be declared greater than God’s. It puts that comparison itself on trial: the claim is not beyond question just because it feels right to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“Because I am sure I have been wronged, my own verdict must be more righteous than God’s.”
THE ROOT
צִדְקִי
tsidqi
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be just or right; alignment.
The verse’s “righteousness” carries the sense of alignment. The question is whether a person’s own alignment can be set above God’s, not merely whether the person feels justified.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: Just, righteous; one who is aligned.
צַדִּיק
This related word shows righteousness as a quality of alignment, not simply a personal claim.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice.
צְדָקָה
This branch extends the same root from a person’s claim to the practice of justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge or decide; to render a verdict.
The word translated “right” is mishpat, a word for judgment or a verdict. That makes the sentence a question about how the claim itself is judged.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: Judge.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch names the one who renders a judgment, bringing the verse’s implied courtroom into view.
mishpatim: Judgments, decisions.
מִשְׁפָּטִים
This plural form shows that mishpat can refer to the rulings by which a claim is assessed.
THE PATTERN
Claims about what is right are weighed in relation to God’s judgment rather than treated as self-proving.
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.THE THREAD
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?“Righteous” here comes from the same root, צדק (ṣ-d-q), as “righteousness” in Job 35:2. The later question makes the tension explicit: can condemning God be the means by which a person establishes their own alignment?
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