I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
Parallel translations
- WEB If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
- BSB If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You?
- NKJV Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, So that I am a burden to myself?
- NASB “Have I sinned? What have I done to You, Watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, So that I am a burden to myself?
- NLT If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you?
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 what harm his sin could do to God, the watcher of men, and why he has become God's target and a burden to himself. He questions the purpose of his suffering.
Overview
Job concedes he may have sinned but cannot see how it would injure God or warrant such affliction. Calling God 'watcher of men,' he wrestles with why he feels singled out. The reader knows the trial's true cause lies in the heavenly contest of Job 1-2, hidden from Job, which teaches that not all suffering is punishment for sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Lam 3:12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
- Job 3:24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
- Ps 36:6Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
- Job 7:11–12Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Ps 80:4O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
- Job 14:16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
- Ps 21:12Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.
- Job 31:33If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
- Job 16:12–14I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
- Job 33:9I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
- Job 33:27He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
- Job 13:26For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
- Neh 9:6Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
- Job 9:29–31If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
- Job 35:6If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
- Job 22:5Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
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 7:20 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.