If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
Parallel translations
- WEB if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
- BSB If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
- NKJV If I sin, then You mark me, And will not acquit me of my iniquity.
- NASB If I have sinned, You will take note of me, And will not acquit me of my guilt.
- NLT was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my guilt.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job feels that if he sins God watches closely and will not acquit him. He dreads inescapable accountability.
Overview
Job perceives God marking his every fault and refusing to let guilt pass, which deepens his sense of being trapped. He rightly sees that God does not ignore sin, yet he does not yet grasp how God can be both just and the justifier. The gospel resolves this, for God acquits the guilty justly through the atoning work of Christ (Romans 3:26; 8:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 7:21And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
- Ps 130:3If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
- Num 14:18The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
- Job 9:28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.
- Exod 34:7Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
- Job 13:26–27For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
- Ps 139:1O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
- Job 14:16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 10:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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