Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
Parallel translations
- KJV Not for any injustice in mine hands: also 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 made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Ps 66:18–19If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.
- Job 27:6–7I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
- Job 8:5–6If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
- Job 31:1–40“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
- Isa 59:6Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
- Jonah 3:8but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
- Job 15:20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
- Job 15:34For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
- Ps 7:3–5Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,
- Job 11:14If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.
- Ps 44:17–21All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to your covenant.
- Job 21:27–28“Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me.
- Job 29:12–17Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
- Job 22:5–9Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
- 1 Tim 2:8I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 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.