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For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’
Job 11:4 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.
  • BSB You have said, ‘My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.’
  • NKJV For you have said, ‘My doctrine is pure, And I am clean in your eyes.’
  • NASB “For you have said, ‘My teaching is pure, And I am innocent in your eyes.’
  • NLT You claim, ‘My beliefs are pure,’ and ‘I am clean in the sight of God.’

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

Zophar quotes Job as claiming his doctrine is pure and he is clean in God's eyes. He sets up Job as self-righteous.

Overview

Zophar paraphrases Job to make him sound as if he claims sinless perfection, though Job had only denied being the gross sinner his friends assume. The distortion fuels Zophar's coming rebuke. It illustrates the danger of caricaturing others' words, and points to our true standing, for no one is clean before God except as cleansed by grace in Christ (Job 9:2; 1 John 1:8-9).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 9

  • Job 10:7Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
  • Job 6:10Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
  • Job 6:29–30Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.
  • Job 7:20If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
  • Job 35:2“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
  • Job 34:5–6For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right:
  • Job 9:2–3“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?
  • 1 Pet 3:15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear:
  • Job 14:4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 11:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 11:4 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.