Do you think I am lying? Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong?
Parallel translations
- WEB Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?
- KJV Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
- BSB Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?
- NKJV Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern the unsavory?
- NASB “Is there injustice on my tongue? Does my palate not discern disasters?
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 asks whether there is injustice on his tongue or whether he cannot discern wickedness. He affirms his ability to know right from wrong and denies speaking falsely.
Overview
Job closes the chapter insisting his speech is not corrupt and his moral judgment is sound. He defends both his honesty and his discernment against their charges. This confident integrity, while not sinless perfection, reflects a conscience kept upright before God, the kind of integrity that finds its perfect fulfillment in Christ, in whose mouth no deceit was ever found.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Job 12:11Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
- Job 6:6Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
- Job 34:3For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes food.
- Job 33:8–12“Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying,
- Heb 5:14But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
- Job 42:3–6You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
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 6:30 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.