God’s Word Translation
Job 9:29
29I’ve already been found guilty. Why should I work so hard for nothing?
Job 9:29 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
- New International Version (NIV)Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?
- English Standard Version (ESV)I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
- New King James Version (NKJV)If I am condemned, Why then do I labor in vain?
Context of Job 9:29
27⌞Even⌟ if I say, ‘I will forget my complaining; I will change my expression and smile,’ 28I ⌞still⌟ dread everything I must suffer. I know that you won’t declare me innocent. I’ve already been found guilty. Why should I work so hard for nothing? 30If I wash myself with lye soap and cleanse my hands with bleach, 31then you would plunge me into a muddy pit, and my own clothes would find me disgusting.
Read all of Job 9Job 9:29 word by word
אָנֹכִ֥י אֶרְשָׁ֑ע לָמָּה־זֶּ֝֗ה הֶ֣בֶל אִיגָֽע׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 9:29
- Job 9:22It is all the same. That is why I say, ‘He destroys ⌞both⌟ the man of integrity and the wicked.’
- Job 10:7You know I’m not guilty, but there is no one to rescue me from your hands.
- Job 21:16Anyhow, isn’t their happiness in their own power? (The plan of the wicked is foreign to my way of thinking.)
- Job 22:5“Aren’t you really very wicked? Is there no end to your wrongdoing?
- Psalms 73:13I’ve received no reward for keeping my life pure and washing my hands of any blame.
- Jeremiah 2:35In spite of all this you say, ‘I’m innocent. God will turn his anger from me, because I haven’t sinned.’
Commentaries on Job 9:29
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 29If I be wicked - If I am the sinner you suppose me to be, in vain should I labor to counterfeit joy, and cease to complain of my sufferings.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 29If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? - The word “if,” here introduced by our translators, greatly obscures the sense. The meaning evidently is, “I am held to be guilty, and cannot answer to that charge. God regards me as such, and if I should attempt to meet him on the charge, it would be a vain attempt; and I must admit its truth. It would be labor in vain to deny it against one so mighty as he is.” This interpretation accords with the argument in…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 25-35Verses 25-35 What little need have we of pastimes, and what great need to redeem time, when it runs on so fast towards eternity! How vain the enjoyments of time, which we may quite lose while yet time continues! The remembrance of having done our duty will be pleasing afterwards; so will not the remembrance of having got worldly wealth, when it is all lost and gone. Job's complaint of God, as one that could not be appeased and would not relent, was the…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-35Job answered Bildad by describing God's universal and legal power. His speech resembles a complex legal case. It includes: A summons and response (9:3, 14–16, 19b, 32). The risk of proving himself guilty (9:20). A "mediator" (9:33–34). A question of accusation (9:12). A legal sentence (9:22). A declaration of guilt (9:28–30).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2929. The "if" is better omitted; I (am treated by God as) wicked; why then labor I in vain (to disprove His charge)? Job submits, not so much because he is convinced that God is right, as because God is powerful and he weak [Barnes].Read the comment
Topics related to Job 9:29
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 9
- 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
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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