Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G Message"Your wickedness only harms a fellow human being; your righteousness only benefits another person like yourself."
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.G"Your wickedness touches a man like yourself; your righteousness, a son of Adam."
KJV
King James VersionThy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleYour wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.
Footnotes
The phrase *בֶן־אָדָם* (ben-adam, 'son of Adam/mankind') is the same construction used for the prophet in Ezekiel, the suffering figure in Psalm 8, and the heavenly figure in Daniel 7. Here it is entirely horizontal and mundane—Elihu's point is that human moral status operates within the human sphere and has no transactional bearing on God. FOG preserves the Hebraic form ('son of Adam') to allow its intertextual resonance; FOG Message renders it plainly ('another person like yourself') to foreground Elihu's blunt, anthropological argument.