the Week of Proper 20 / Ordinary 25
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Wycliffe Bible
Job 9:29
Bible Study Resources
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Since I will be found guilty,why should I struggle in vain?
I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
I have already been found guilty, so why should I struggle for no reason?
If I am guilty, why then weary myself in vain?
"I am accounted wicked and held guilty; Why then should I labor in vain [to appear innocent]?
"I am guilty, Why then should I struggle in vain?
I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
If I be wicked, why labour I thus in vaine?
I am accounted wicked;Why then should I toil in vain?
Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?
So what's the use of trying to prove my innocence?
I will be condemned, so why waste my efforts?
Be it that I am wicked, why then do I labour in vain?
I will be found guilty, so why should I even think about it?
Behold, if I am declared guilty, why then dost thou consume me in vain?
Since I am held guilty, why should I bother?
If I shall be declared guilty, why then should I labor in vain?
I have been condemned; why should I labor in vain?
Yf I be then a wicked one, why haue I laboured in vayne?
I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing?
I shall be condemned; why then do I labour in vain?
If I be wicked, why then labour I in vaine?
If I be wicked, why then labour I in vayne?
But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?
I shall be condemned; why then do I labour in vain?
I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
[If] I am wicked, why then do I labor in vain?
If I am condemned, Why then do I labor in vain?
Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what's the use of trying?
Because I am already guilty, why should I try for nothing?
I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
I, shall be held guilty, - Wherefore then, in vain, should I toil?
But if so also I am wicked, why have I laboured in vain?
I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
I -- I am become wicked; why [is] this? [In] vain I labour.
"I am accounted wicked, Why then should I toil in vain?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Job 9:22, Job 10:7, Job 10:14-17, Job 21:16, Job 21:17, Job 21:27, Job 22:5-30, Psalms 73:13, Jeremiah 2:35
Reciprocal: Genesis 3:7 - and they Job 7:20 - I have sinned Job 10:15 - If I be wicked Galatians 2:16 - that
Cross-References
And al the tyme in which Adam lyuede was maad nyne hundrid yeer and thretti, and he was deed.
And alle the dayes of Jared weren maad nyn hundrid and twei and sexti yeer, and he was deed.
And alle the daies of Matusale weren maad nyn hundrid and nyn and sixti yeer, and he was deed.
Forsothe Noe whanne he was of fyue hundrid yeer gendride Sem, Cham, and Jafeth.
Y schal make my couenaunt with you, and ech fleisch schal no more be slayn of the watris of the greet flood, nethir the greet flood distriynge al erthe schal be more.
he seide, Cursid be the child Canaan, he schal be seruaunt of seruauntis to hise britheren.
the daies of oure yeeris ben in tho seuenti yeeris. Forsothe, if fourescoor yeer ben in myyti men; and the more tyme of hem is trauel and sorewe. For myldenesse cam aboue; and we schulen be chastisid.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
[If] I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?] If he was that wicked person, that hypocrite, Bildad and his other friends took him to be, it was in vain for him to make his supplications to God, as they advised him; so Gersom gives the sense of the words; since God hears not sinners, such as live in sin, regard iniquity in their hearts, and practise it in their lives, at least secretly, as it was suggested Job did; if he was such an one, it must be all lost labour to pray to God to show favour to him, and deliver him out of his troubles, since he might reasonably expect he would shut his eyes and stop his ears at such a man, and regard not his cries; seeking to him must be in vain; prayer may be fitly enough expressed by labour, it is a striving and wrestling with God, and especially when it is constant, importunate, and fervent: but rather the sense is, that if he was a wicked man in the account of God, or was dealt with as one; if God would not hold him innocent, as he asserts in the latter part of Job 9:28; then it was a vain thing to labour the point in the vindication of himself; since he could never think of succeeding against God, so wise and powerful, so holy, just, and pure. The word "if" is not in the original text, and may be left out, and the words be rendered, "I am wicked" l; not in any notorious manner, as having lived a scandalous life, or been guilty of some gross enormities, as his friends insinuated, but in common with other men; he was born a sinner, had been a transgressor from the womb, and though he was renewed and sanctified by the spirit of God, yet sin dwelt in him, and through the infirmity of the flesh he was daily sinning in thought, word, or deed; nor did he expect it would be otherwise with him while in this world; yea, it was impossible for him to be without sin, as Bar Tzemach observes to be the sense of the phrase; and therefore if God would not clear him, or hold him innocent, unless he was entirely free from sin, as it was labouring in vain to attain to such perfection, so it must be to no purpose, and is what he chiefly intends, to attempt to vindicate himself before God: or "I shall be wicked", or "ungodly" m; I shall be treated as such not only by his friends, who would reckon him a very wicked man so long as those afflictions continued on him, let him say what he would; but by the Lord himself, who he believed would never release him from them as long as he lived, which in the eye of men would be a tacit condemnation of him; so the Targum,
"I shall be condemned,''
and therefore it was labour in vain, striving against the stream, to go about to vindicate himself; nor was it possible that he could make himself out so clear and pure and perfect, that such an holy Being as God was could find no fault in him, in whose sight the heavens, and the inhabitants of them, were not clean; this is further evinced in the following words.
l אנכי ארשע "impius sum", V. L. Pagninus; so Schmidt. m "Ego impius ero", Montanus, Mercerus, Bolducius; "ego reus ero", Codurcus; "equidem improbus ero", Schultens.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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. Job maintains that it would be in vain to contend with God, and he gives up the argument in despair. It is quite evident, however, that he does not do it so much because he is convinced himself, as because he knows that God is great, and that it would be useless to contend with him. There is evidently implied all along the feeling that if he was able to cope with God in the argument, the result would be different. As it is, he submits - not because he is convinced, but because he is weak; not because he sees that God is right, but because he sees that he is powerful. How much submission of this kind is there in the world - submision, not to right, but to power; submission to God, not because he is seen to be wise and good, but because he is seen to be almighty, and it is vain to attempt to oppose him! It is needless to say that such feelings evince no true submission.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 9:29. If I be wicked — If I am the sinner you suppose me to be, in vain should I labour to counterfeit joy, and cease to complain of my sufferings.
