Job 9:2
in Job 9“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Of a truth I know that it is so: But how can man be just with God?
KJV
I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
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This verse in Job 9
Commentary
11 notes on this verseBlessed Job in his answer above in which he had responded to Eliphaz's words, seemed to have overlooked one argument which Eliphaz had proposed about the justice of God when he said, "Will man ever be justified in comparison with God?" (4:17) He rather seemed …
This site's exposition
Then Job answered
on Job 9:1-4
Job answers Bildad's true doctrine with the question the whole book turns on: "how can a mortal be righteous before God". A man who contends with God "could not answer Him one time out of a thousand," against a party who is both accuser and judge.
This site's exposition
how can a mortal be righteous before God
Spurgeon called this the great question for the human race. Rosenmuller, as Barnes reports, heard Job answering Eliphaz at 4:17, which asks whether a mortal can be more righteous than God. Romans 3:26 answers it, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point out, with a God who is just and justifies.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
I know it is so of a truth, and that man put with God is not justified. For man being put under God receives righteousness; being put with God he loses it: for everyone that compares himself with the Author of all good things, bereaves himself of the good which he had received. For he that ascribes to himself blessings vouchsafed to him, is fighting against God with His own gifts. Therefore by whatsoever means he being in contempt is lifted up, it is meet that being so set up he be brought to the ground by the same.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
These are truths which I subscribe to; but how can any man make good his part with God?" In his sight shall no flesh living be justified, Ps. cxliii. How should man be just with God?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
I know - That God is just in all his ways, that he doth ordinarily bless the righteous, and punish the wicked. Before God - And I know that no man is absolutely just, if God be severe to mark what is amiss in him.
I know it is so of a truth,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
I know it is so of a truth - I acknowledge the general truth of the maxims you have advanced. God will not ultimately punish a righteous person, nor shall the wicked finally triumph; and though righteous before man, and truly sincere in my piety, yet I know, when compared with the immaculate holiness of God, all my righteousness is nothing.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2932: “False Justification and True” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
THE great question for the human race to answer has always been this, "How can man be just with God?" It is clear to every conscience that is at all awake that the thrice-holy God demands obedience to His Law and that disobedience to the Divine Law will certainly entail punishment. Hence the grand essential for each one of us is to be right towards God—to be accounted just even at His judgment bar.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
I know it is so of a truth--that God does not "pervert justice" (Job 8:3). But (even though I be sure of being in the right) how can a mere man assert his right--(be just) with God. The Gospel answers (Ro 3:26).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I know it is so of a truth - Job here refers, undoubtedly, to something that had been said before; but whether it is to the general strain of remark, or to some particular expression, may be doubted. Rosenmuller supposes that he refers to what was said by Eliphaz in Job 4:17; but it seems more probable that it is to the general position which had been laid down and defended, that God was just and holy, and that his proceedings were marked with equity. Job admits this, and proceeds to show that it was a truth quite as familiar to him as it was to them. The object of his dwelling on it seems to be to show them that it was no new thing to him, and that he had some views on that important subject which were well worthy of attention. But how should man be just with God? - Margin, “before.” The meaning is, that he could not be regarded as perfectly holy in the sight of God; or that so holy and pure a being as God must see that man was a sinner, and regard him as such; see the sentiment explained in the notes at Job 4:17. The question here asked is, in itself, the most important ever propounded by man - “How shall sinful man be regarded and treated as righteous by his Maker?” This has been the great inquiry which has always been before the human mind. Man is conscious that he is a sinner. He feels that he must be regarded as such by God. Yet his happiness here and hereafter, his peace and all his hope, depend on his being treated as if he were righteous, or regarded as just before God. […]
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָ֭מְנָם | ʾamenom | truly | H551 → | 9 times |
| יָדַ֣עְתִּי | yada'ti | I know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| כִי־ | khi- | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| כֵ֑ן | khen | thus | H3651 → | 771 times |
| וּמַה־ | umah- | and what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| יִּצְדַּ֖ק | yitzdak | will he be justified | H6663 → | 41 times |
| אֱנ֣וֹשׁ | ʾenoosh | a person | H582 → | 566 times |
| עִם־ | ʾim- | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| אֵֽל׃ | ʾel | God | H410 → | 241 times |
אָ֭מְנָםtruly
ʾamenomH551 →9 times
יָדַ֣עְתִּיI know
yada'tiH3045 →945 times
כִי־that
khi-H3588 →4482 times
כֵ֑ןthus
khenH3651 →771 times
וּמַה־and what?
umah-H4100 →752 times
יִּצְדַּ֖קwill he be justified
yitzdakH6663 →41 times
אֱנ֣וֹשׁa person
ʾenooshH582 →566 times
עִם־with
ʾim-H5973 →1050 times
אֵֽל׃God
ʾelH410 →241 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
Psalms 143:2Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 7:20
Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 25:4
How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ecclesiastes 7:20
Through
Romans 3:20Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
it leads to
- Galatians 2:16
know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in…
- Acts 13:39
Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
- Romans 3:28
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
- Galatians 2:19
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- Romans 4:15
because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
- Galatians 2:16
Through
Job 25:4How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
it leads to
- Psalms 130:3
If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 130:3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
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; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2932: “False Justification and True” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IX; 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.