Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
Parallel translations
- WEB Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
- BSB yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
- NKJV Although no violence is in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
- NASB Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
- NLT Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure.
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 maintains his innocence: there is no violence in his hands and his prayer is pure. He suffers despite real integrity.
Overview
Even in his anguish Job affirms that his conduct is free of wrong and his worship sincere. This is the crux of the book's tension: a genuinely righteous man enduring severe suffering. Job's protest of innocence, vindicated by God himself (Job 1:8), points forward to the wholly innocent Sufferer, Christ, who alone could say with perfect truth that no violence was in his hands (1 Peter 2:22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Ps 66:18–19If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
- Job 27:6–7My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
- Job 8:5–6If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
- Job 31:1–40I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
- Isa 59:6Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
- Jonah 3:8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
- Job 15:20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
- Job 15:34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
- Ps 7:3–5O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;
- Job 11:14If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
- Ps 44:17–21All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
- Job 21:27–28Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
- Job 29:12–17Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
- Job 22:5–9Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
- 1 Tim 2:8I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
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 16:17 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.