Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.
Parallel translations
- WEB Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
- KJV If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
- NKJV Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse.
- NASB “Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.
- NLT Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked.
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 says that even if he is righteous, his own mouth would condemn him before God, and his integrity be twisted into guilt. He despairs of being declared right.
Overview
Job fears that in God's overwhelming presence, even his innocent words would somehow incriminate him. He is not confessing real guilt but lamenting that he could not maintain his case before so great a God. The verse expresses the impossibility of self-vindication, underscoring humanity's need for a righteousness from outside itself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Job 34:35‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.’
- Job 9:2“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?
- Phil 3:12–15Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
- Job 32:1–2So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
- Ps 130:3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
- Ps 143:2Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Job 15:5–6For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
- Job 4:17‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
- 1 Tim 6:5and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.
- Luke 10:29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
- Job 1:1There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.
- Prov 17:20The one with a perverse heart finds no good, and he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.
- Jas 3:2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.
- Luke 16:15So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.
- Isa 6:5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- Matt 12:36–37But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
- Prov 10:19When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
- Job 35:16So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”
- Job 33:8–13Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:20 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.