“Even if I have truly done wrong, My error stays with me.
Parallel translations
- WEB If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
- KJV And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
- BSB Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.
- NKJV And if indeed I have erred, My error remains with me.
- NLT Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours.
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 grants that even if he has erred, the matter is his own concern, not grounds for their attack. He denies they have a right to condemn him.
Overview
Job argues that any fault of his is a private matter between him and God, not something his friends are entitled to seize upon. He rejects their assumption that his suffering exposes hidden sin they must expose. The exchange highlights how only God truly searches the heart, and how presuming to judge another's standing oversteps human authority (Romans 14:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ezek 18:4Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.
- 2 Cor 5:10For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
- Prov 9:12If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it.
- 2 Sam 24:17David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.”
- Gal 6:5For each man will bear his own burden.
- Job 11:3–6Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
Resources, by level
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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 19:4 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.