Romans 3:4
New International Version
Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”

New Living Translation
Of course not! Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, “You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court.”

English Standard Version
By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

Berean Standard Bible
Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”

Berean Literal Bible
Never may it be! But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it has been written: "That You may be justified in Your words, and will prevail in Your being judged."

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.”

New American Standard Bible
Far from it! Rather, God must prove to be true, though every person be found a liar, as it is written: “SO THAT YOU ARE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”

NASB 1995
May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”

NASB 1977
May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT THOU MIGHTEST BE JUSTIFIED IN THY WORDS, AND MIGHTEST PREVAIL WHEN THOU ART JUDGED.”

Legacy Standard Bible
May it never be! Rather, let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND OVERCOME WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”

Amplified Bible
Certainly not! Let God be found true [as He will be], though every person be found a liar, just as it is written [in Scripture], “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED [by sinful men].”

Christian Standard Bible
Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words and triumph when you judge.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written: That You may be justified in Your words and triumph when You judge.

American Standard Version
God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
God forbid! For God is true, and every person lies, just as that which is written: “You will be upright in your words and you will be victorious when they judge you.”

Contemporary English Version
No, indeed! God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar. The Scriptures say about God, "Your words will be proven true, and in court you will win your case."

Douay-Rheims Bible
But God is true; and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged.

English Revised Version
God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
That would be unthinkable! God is honest, and everyone else is a liar, as Scripture says, "So you hand down justice when you speak, and you win your case in court."

Good News Translation
Certainly not! God must be true, even though all human beings are liars. As the scripture says, "You must be shown to be right when you speak; you must win your case when you are being tried."

International Standard Version
Of course not! God is true, even if everyone else is a liar. As it is written, "You are right when you speak, and win your case when you go into court."

Literal Standard Version
Let it not be! And let God become true, and every man false, according as it has been written: “That You may be declared righteous in Your words, and may overcome in Your being judged.”

Majority Standard Bible
Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”

New American Bible
Of course not! God must be true, though every human being is a liar, as it is written: “That you may be justified in your words, and conquer when you are judged.”

NET Bible
Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: "so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged."

New Revised Standard Version
By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, “So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging.”

New Heart English Bible
Absolutely not. Let God be found true, but every human being a liar. As it is written, "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you judge."

Webster's Bible Translation
By no means: verily let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mayest be justified in thy sayings, and mayest overcome when thou art judged.

Weymouth New Testament
No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest, and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."

World English Bible
May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”

Young's Literal Translation
let it not be! and let God become true, and every man false, according as it hath been written, 'That Thou mayest be declared righteous in Thy words, and mayest overcome in Thy being judged.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
God Remains Faithful
3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Certainly not! Let God be TRUE and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.” 5But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.…

Cross References
Job 40:8
Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

Psalm 51:4
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.

Psalm 116:11
In my alarm I said, "All men are liars!"

Luke 20:16
He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others." And when the people heard this, they said, "May such a thing never happen!"

Romans 3:6
Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?

Romans 3:7
However, if my falsehood accentuates God's truthfulness, to the increase of His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?

Romans 3:31
Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.


Treasury of Scripture

God forbid: yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.

God forbid.

Romans 3:6,31
God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? …

Romans 6:2,15
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? …

Romans 7:7,13
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet…

let God.

Deuteronomy 32:4
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.

Job 40:8
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Psalm 100:5
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

but every.

Psalm 62:9
Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Psalm 116:11
I said in my haste, All men are liars.

That thou.

Job 36:3
I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

Psalm 51:4
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Matthew 11:19
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

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Cause Contendest False. Far Forbid Found Gain Hold Indeed Judge Judged Judgment Justified Liar Mayest Means Mightest Overcome Prevail Prove Proved Rather Right Sayings Sentence Shown Speak Stands Thought True. Untrue Verily Words Writings Written
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Cause Contendest False. Far Forbid Found Gain Hold Indeed Judge Judged Judgment Justified Liar Mayest Means Mightest Overcome Prevail Prove Proved Rather Right Sayings Sentence Shown Speak Stands Thought True. Untrue Verily Words Writings Written
Romans 3
1. The Jews prerogative;
3. which they have not lost;
9. howbeit the law convinces them also of sin;
20. therefore no one is justified by the law;
28. but all, without difference, by faith, only;
31. and yet the law is not abolished.














(4) Impossible! Rather let God be seen to be true though all mankind should be proved false, even as the Psalmist looked upon his own sin as serving to enhance the triumph of God's justice. Speaking of that justice for the moment as if it could be arraigned before the bar of a still higher tribunal, he asserts its absolute and complete acquittal.

That thou mightest be justified.--Strictly, in order that, here as in the Hebrew of the Psalm. Good is, in some way inscrutable to us, educed out of evil, and this is clearly foreseen by God, and forms part of His design, though so as not to interfere with the free-will of man. Religion assumes that the two things, free-will and omnipotence, are reconcilable, though how they are to be reconciled seems an insoluble problem. The same difficulty attaches to every system but one of blank fatalism and atheism. But the theory of fatalism if logically carried out would simply destroy human society.

Psalms 51, in which the quotation occurs, is commonly (in accordance with the heading), though perhaps wrongly, ascribed to David after his sin with Bathsheba. The effect of this sin is to throw out into the strongest relief the justice of the sentence by which it is followed and punished. The original is, "That thou mightest be just in thy speaking; that thou mightest be pure in thy judging." St. Paul adopts the rendering of the LXX., who make the last word passive instead of active, thus making it apply, not to the sentence given by God, but to the imaginary trial to which by a figure of speech that sentence itself is supposed to be submitted.

Verse 4. - God forbid (there is no better English phrase for expressing the indignant repudiation of μὴ γένοιτο): yea, let God be true (γινέσθω ἀληθὴς; i.e. "let his truth be established;" "Fiat, in judicio," Bengel), but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged, We can hardly avoid recognizing a reference to Psalm 116:11 in "every man a liar, the words of the LXX. being exactly given, though the general purport of that psalm does not bear upon the present argument. The apostle takes this phrase from it as expressing well what he wants to say, viz. that though all men were false (in the sense expressed and implied by the previous ἠπίστησαν), yet God's truth stands. But it only leads up to the second quotation from Psalm 51, which is the important one, introduced by καθὼς γέραπται. In its final words, νικήσης ἐν τῶ κρίνεσθαί σε, the LXX. is followed (so also Vulgate, cum judicaris), though the Hebrew may be more correctly rendered, as in the Authorized Version, "be clear when thou judgest." The κρίνεσθαι of the LXX. may be understood passively in the sense of God being called to account, as men might be, for the justice of his dealings; or, perhaps, in a middle sense for entering into a suit or controversy with his people. Κρίνεσθαι means "going to law" in 1 Corinthians 6:1, 6 (cf. also Matthew 5:40), and in the LXX., with especial reference to a supposed controversy or pleading of God with men, Jeremiah 25:31; Job 9:2; Job 13:19. (See also Hosea 2:2, Κρίθητε πρὸς τὴν μητέρα ὑῶν.) The meaning of this concluding expression does not, however, affect the main purport of the verse, or its relevancy as here quoted. Occurring in what is believed to be David's penitential psalm after his sin. in the matter of Uriah, it declares, in conjunction with the preceding verse, that, sin having been committed, man alone is guilty, and that God's truth and righteousness can never be impugned. But it seems to imply still more than this, viz. that man's sin has the establishment of God's righteousness as its consequence, or even, it may be, as its purpose; for the conclusion of ver. 4 in the psalm, naturally connected with "against thee only have I sinned" preceding, is so connected by ὄπως α}ν (in Hebrew, לְמַעַן); and it is not out of keeping with scriptural doctrine that David should have intended to express even Divine purpose in that he had been permitted, for his sins, to fall into that deeper sin with the view of establishing God's righteousness all the more. It does not, however, seem certain (whatever some grammarians may say) that the conjunction need of necessity be understood as relic; it may be embatic only. However this be, it is the inference from ὄπως ἀν that suggests the new objection of the following verse.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Absolutely not!
γένοιτο (genoito)
Verb - Aorist Optative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

{Let} God
Θεὸς (Theos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

be
γινέσθω (ginesthō)
Verb - Present Imperative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

TRUE
ἀληθής (alēthēs)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 227: Unconcealed, true, true in fact, worthy of credit, truthful. TRUE.

and
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

every
πᾶς (pas)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.

man
ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 444: A man, one of the human race. From aner and ops; man-faced, i.e. A human being.

a liar.
ψεύστης (pseustēs)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5583: A liar, deceiver. From pseudomai; a falsifier.

As
καθὼς (kathōs)
Conjunction
Strong's 2531: According to the manner in which, in the degree that, just as, as. From kata and hos; just as, that.

it is written:
γέγραπται (gegraptai)
Verb - Perfect Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1125: A primary verb; to 'grave', especially to write; figuratively, to describe.

“So that
ἂν (an)
Particle
Strong's 302: A primary particle, denoting a supposition, wish, possibility or uncertainty.

You may be justified
δικαιωθῇς (dikaiōthēs)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Passive - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 1344: From dikaios; to render just or innocent.

in
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

Your
σου (sou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

words,
λόγοις (logois)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3056: From lego; something said; by implication, a topic, also reasoning or motive; by extension, a computation; specially, the Divine Expression.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

prevail
νικήσεις (nikēseis)
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 3528: To conquer, be victorious, overcome, prevail, subdue. From nike; to subdue.

in
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

Your
σε (se)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

judgments.”
κρίνεσθαί (krinesthai)
Verb - Present Infinitive Middle or Passive
Strong's 2919: Properly, to distinguish, i.e. Decide; by implication, to try, condemn, punish.


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NT Letters: Romans 3:4 May it never be! (Rom. Ro)
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