If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
Parallel translations
- WEB If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.
- BSB If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
- NKJV If I am wicked, woe to me; Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; See my misery!
- NASB ‘If I am wicked, woe to me! But if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am full of shame, and conscious of my misery.
- NLT If I am guilty, too bad for me; and even if I’m innocent, I can’t hold my head high, because I am filled with shame and misery.
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
Whether wicked or righteous, Job feels condemned and filled with shame and affliction. He sees no relief in either verdict.
Overview
Job laments that guilt would bring woe, yet even innocence brings him no relief, only disgrace and misery. His words capture the despair of one who cannot find footing before God's apparent hostility. This hopeless impasse magnifies the need for a righteousness from outside ourselves, which God supplies in Christ alone (Philippians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Isa 3:11Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
- Job 9:15Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.
- Job 9:20–21If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
- Job 10:7Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
- Isa 6:5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
- Mal 3:18Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
- Ps 25:18Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
- Luke 17:10So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
- Ps 119:153Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law.
- Job 9:12Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?
- Rom 2:8–9But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
- Ps 9:17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
- Job 27:7Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.
- Lam 5:1–22Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
- Lam 1:20Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
- Job 9:29If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
- Exod 3:7And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
- Job 21:6Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
- Isa 64:5–6Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
- Job 23:15Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
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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 10:15 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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