“I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
- KJV I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
- BSB I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
- NKJV I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Show me why You contend with me.
- NLT I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me— tell me the charge you are bringing against me.
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 asks God not to condemn him without showing him the reason for the dispute. He pleads to understand why God seems to contend against him.
Overview
Rather than turn from God, Job turns toward Him, asking to know the charge behind his suffering. His request shows faith mingled with confusion, seeking God's own explanation. The reader knows the contest in heaven that Job cannot see, a reminder that God's hidden purposes are wise even when unexplained (Job 1-2; Romans 11:33).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 139:23–24Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
- Job 9:29I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
- Ps 143:2Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
- Rom 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
- Ps 38:1–8A Psalm by David, for a memorial. Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
- Job 8:5–6If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
- Ps 6:1–4For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger, neither discipline me in your wrath.
- 1 Cor 11:31–32For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.
- Job 34:31–32“For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.
- Lam 5:16–17The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned.
- Ps 25:7Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, for your goodness’ sake, Yahweh.
- Ps 109:21But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me;
- Lam 3:40–42Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 10:2 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.