Job 9:29
in Job 9Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
KJV
If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
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This verse in Job 9
Commentary
10 notes on this verseBut if even so I be wicked, why, then, have I laboured in vain? For if we be examined pity set aside, our work which we look to have recompensed with a reward is deserving of punishment. 'Therefore the holy man shrinking under secret judgment, says, But if even so I be wicked, why, then, have I laboured in vain? Not that he repents of having laboured, but that it grieves him even amidst labours to be in uncertainty about the reward.
This site's exposition
My days are swifter than a runner
on Job 9:25-31
"My days are swifter than a runner" returns to the speed of life. Resolving to "forget my complaint" brings no comfort, since "I would still dread all my sufferings". Even "If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye," God would plunge him "into the pit".
This site's exposition
Since I am already found guilty
The King James adds an if that Barnes says obscures the sense, and the Berean reads it as Barnes did: Job is already found guilty. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note he yields to God's strength. Henry notes that with men an innocent man often labors in vain to clear himself.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"If I am ungodly, why have I not died?" You see how he does not deny being a sinner. "Why have I not died?" he says. This is not the expression of a man who accuses but who searches.
The Medieval Church1 voice
"If however," after such great zeal for innocence, "I am so wicked," that I merit to be punished with such great punishments from God, "why have I labored in vain?" i.e. with such great anxiety to maintain my innocence? For he labors in vain who …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
It is to no purpose to speak in a cause that is already prejudged. With men it is often labour in vain for the most innocent to go about to clear themselves; they must be adjudged guilty, though the evidence be ever so plain for them. But it is not so in our dealings with God, who is the patron of oppressed innocency and to whom it was never in vain to commit a righteous cause.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
If 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 the whole chapter.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
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].
If 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָנֹכִ֥י | ʾanokhi | I | H595 → | 359 times |
| אֶרְשָׁ֑ע | ʾersha' | I will be guilty | H7561 → | 34 times |
| לָמָּה־ | lamah- | <to> why? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| זֶּ֝֗ה | zeh | this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| הֶ֣בֶל | hevel | vanity | H1892 → | 73 times |
| אִיגָֽע׃ | ʾiga' | will I labor | H3021 → |
אָנֹכִ֥יI
ʾanokhiH595 →359 times
אֶרְשָׁ֑עI will be guilty
ʾersha'H7561 →34 times
לָמָּה־<to> why?
lamah-H4100 →752 times
זֶּ֝֗הthis
zehH2088 →1180 times
הֶ֣בֶלvanity
hevelH1892 →73 times
אִיגָֽע׃will I labor
ʾiga'H3021 →
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 37:33the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned under judgment.
it leads to
- Psalms 109:31
For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.
- 2 Peter 2:9
if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- Romans 8:1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 8:33–34
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
- 2 Timothy 4:17
But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of…
- Psalms 109:31
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…
- Psalms 139:1–2
O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
- Job 42:7
After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as…
- Deuteronomy 32:39
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 10 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); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 9:29-31; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.