Job 10:14
in Job 10If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If I sin, then thou markest me, And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
KJV
If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
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This verse in Job 10
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Yet You concealed these things in Your heart
on Job 10:13-14
"Yet You concealed these things in Your heart" accuses God of hiding a settled purpose. "If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity" extends the charge. The frame of chapters 1 and 2 shows the complaint true in a sense Job cannot see.
This site's exposition
If I sinned, You would take note
Job states what he believes God concealed in His heart in verse 13. Clarke reads it this way: nothing is hidden from God, and He will not acquit a man He knows to be guilty. Job feels watched for every sin.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Job sought the cause of his punishment in what he said before based on the supposition that he was innocent. Now he proceeds to inquire whether he is punished because he is a sinner. To show first that he is not punished for sin, he …
If I have sinned, and Thou sparedst me at the hour, wherefore dost Thou not let me be clean from mine iniquity? The Lord 'spareth sin at the hour,' when the moment that we yield tears, He does away with the guilt of sin.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Conscience, thy deputy, will be sure to upbraid me with it, and to tell me that this gripe, this twitch of pain, is to punish me for that." If God should thus mark iniquities, we should be undone; but we must acknowledge the contrary, that, though we sin, God does not deal in extremity with us.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
If I sin, then thou markest me,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
If I sin - From thee nothing can be hidden; if I sin, thou takest account of the transgression, and canst not hold me for innocent when thou knowest I am guilty.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
If I sin - The object of this verse and the following is, evidently, to say that he was wholly perplexed. He did not know how to act. He could not understand the reason of the divine dealings, and he was wholly unable to explain them, and hence, he did not know how to act in a proper manner. It is expressive of a state of mind where the individual wishes to think and feel right, but where he finds so much to perplex him, that he does not know what to do. Job was sure that his friends were not right in the position which they maintained - that he was a sinner of enormous character, and that his sufferings were proof of this, and yet he did not know how to answer their arguments. He desired to have confidence in God, and yet he knew not how to reconcile his dealings with his sense of right. He felt that he was a friend of God, and he did not know why he should visit one who had this consciousness in this distressing and painful manner. His mind was perplexed, vacillating, embarrassed, and he did not know what to do or say. The truth in this whole argument was, that he was more often right than his friends, but that he, in common with them, had embraced some principles which he was compelled to admit to be true, or which he could not demonstrate to be false, which gave them greatly the advantage in the argument, and which they pressed upon him now with overwhelming force. Then thou markest me - Dost carefully observe every fault. Why he did this, Job could not see. The same difficulty he expressed in Job 7:17-19; see the notes at that place. And wilt not acquit me - Wilt not pardon me. Job did not understand why God would not do this. It was exceedingly perplexing to him that God held him to be guilty, and would not pardon him if he had sinned. The same perplexity he expressed in Job 7:21; see the note at that verse.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
If I sinned, You watched me You laid Your eyes on me so as not to ignore [my sins] nor to forbear retaliation, and [from now on] You are not cleansing me of my iniquity but are requiting me for everything.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
But You hid these in Your heart to destroy me as though You did not remember them, but..
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| חָטָ֥אתִי | chatati | I sinned | H2398 → | 238 times |
| וּשְׁמַרְתָּ֑נִי | ushemartani | and you will watch me | H8104 → | 468 times |
| וּ֝מֵעֲוֹנִ֗י | umeavoni | and from iniquity my | H5771 → | 233 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תְנַקֵּֽנִי׃ | tenakeni | you will acquit me | H5352 → |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
חָטָ֥אתִיI sinned
chatatiH2398 →238 times
וּשְׁמַרְתָּ֑נִיand you will watch me
ushemartaniH8104 →468 times
וּ֝מֵעֲוֹנִ֗יand from iniquity my
umeavoniH5771 →233 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תְנַקֵּֽנִי׃you will acquit me
tenakeniH5352 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 34:7maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and…
it leads to
- Exodus 20:5–6
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
- 1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 103:3
He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,
- Deuteronomy 5:9–10
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
- Ephesians 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
- Exodus 20:5–6
Through
Psalms 130:3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
it leads to
- Psalms 143:2
Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Psalms 76:7
You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- Romans 3:20–24
Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- Psalms 143:2
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IX; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.