For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:
- BSB For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.
- NKJV For You write bitter things against me, And make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
- NASB “For You write bitter things against me And make me inherit the guilty deeds of my youth.
- NLT “You write bitter accusations against me and bring up all the sins of my youth.
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 God is recording bitter charges and recalling his youthful sins. He senses old failings held against him.
Overview
Job says God writes 'bitter things' against him and makes him inherit 'the iniquities of my youth.' He perceives his present suffering as a reckoning for past sins, even those long ago. While he overstates God's motives, the verse honestly voices how the afflicted can feel pursued by their history.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 25:7Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.
- John 5:14Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
- Jer 31:19Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
- Ruth 1:20And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
- Prov 5:11–13And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
- Ps 88:3–18For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
- Job 3:20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
- John 5:5And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
- Job 20:11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
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 13:26 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.