Job 11:4
in Job 11You have said, ‘My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.’
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For thou sayest, My doctrine is pure, And I am clean in thine eyes.
KJV
For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.
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This verse in Job 11
Commentary
11 notes on this verseFor Thou hast said, My speech is pure, and I am clean in Thine eyes. Whoso remembers the words of blessed Job, knows how falsely this charge is fastened upon his voice.
This site's exposition
Zophar the Naamathite replied
on Job 11:1-4
Zophar the Naamathite opens the harshest of the three friends' speeches. He alone skips the softening opening that Eliphaz and Bildad each give before they accuse. He meets Job's claim, "My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight", with open scorn.
This site's exposition
My doctrine is sound
Zophar puts words in Job's mouth. Barnes gives the Hebrew word for doctrine as persuasive speech, and Clarke as the principles a man takes to be sound. Job had said he was pure of the wicked deeds his friends suspected, and Gregory calls this charge falsely fastened on his words.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Previously Job had already said, "If I am ungodly, why have I not died?" Did he not define himself as "blameless"? These words do not belong to Job but to God. It is God, in fact, who designated Job as blameless in his actions and …
The Medieval Church1 voice
But perhaps Job could say that they have no reason to reproach him or his words. To reject this he continues, "For you have said: My speech is pure." He makes this interpretation according to what Job had said already, "You will find no evil …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Clean - I am innocent before God; I have not sinned either by my former actions, or by my present expressions. But Zophar perverts Job's words, for he did not deny that he was a sinner, but only that he was an hypocrite.
): Thou hast said, My doctrine is pure. And what if he had said so? It was true that Job was sound in the faith, and orthodox in his judgment, and spoke better of God than his friends did.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
For thou hast said,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
My doctrine is pure - לקחי likchi, “my assumptions.” What I assume or take as right, and just, and true, are so; the precepts which I have formed, and the practice which I have founded on them, are all correct and perfect.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
doctrine--purposely used of Job's speeches, which sounded like lessons of doctrine (De 32:2; Pr 4:2). thine--addressed to God. Job had maintained his sincerity against his friends suspicions, not faultlessness.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
My doctrine is pure - The Septuagint instead of the word “doctrine” here reads “deeds,” ἔργοις ergois; the Syriac, “thou sayest I have acted justly.” But the word used here (לקח leqach) means properly “fair speech” or “taking arguments,” that by which one is “taken” or captivated, from לקח lâqach, “to take.” Then it means doctrine, or instruction, Pro 1:5; Pro 9:9. Here it means the views which Job had expressed. Dr. Good supposes that it means “conduct,” a word which would suit the connection, but the Hebrew is not used in this sense. And I am clean in thine eyes - In the eyes of God, or in his sight. This was a false charge. Job had never maintained that he was perfect (compare the notes at Job 9:20); he had only maintained that he was not such a sinner as his friends maintained that he was, a hypocrite, and a man eminent for guilt. His lack of absolute perfection he was ever ready to admit and mourn over.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַ֭תֹּאמֶר | vatomer | and you have said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| זַ֣ךְ | zakh | [is] pure | H2134 → | 11 times |
| לִקְחִ֑י | likchi | teaching my | H3948 → | |
| וּ֝בַ֗ר | uvar | and clean | H1249 → | |
| הָיִ֥יתִי | hayiti | I am | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| בְעֵינֶֽיךָ׃ | veeineikha | in view your | H5869 → | 887 times |
וַ֭תֹּאמֶרand you have said
vatomerH559 →5305 times
זַ֣ךְ[is] pure
zakhH2134 →11 times
לִקְחִ֑יteaching my
likchiH3948 →
וּ֝בַ֗רand clean
uvarH1249 →
הָיִ֥יתִיI am
hayitiH1961 →3559 times
בְעֵינֶֽיךָ׃in view your
veeineikhaH5869 →887 times
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
Job 14:4Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
it leads to
- John 3:6
Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.
- Job 15:14
What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Romans 8:8–9
Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.
- Ephesians 2:3
All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
- Job 25:4–6
How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
- John 3:6
Through
Job 6:10It still brings me comfort, and joy through unrelenting pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
it leads to
- Job 23:12
I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
- Isaiah 57:15
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit,…
- Job 23:12
Through
Job 10:7though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:39
See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My…
- Deuteronomy 32:39
About Job
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book X; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job; Hesychius of Jerusalem, HOMILIES ON JOB 14.11.4-6; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.