Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked.
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.
- BSB Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.
- 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.
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 are without wisdom.’
- Job 9:2“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?
- Phil 3:12–15Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
- Job 32:1–2So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
- Ps 130:3If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
- Ps 143:2Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
- Job 15:5–6For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
- Job 4:17‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
- 1 Tim 6:5constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
- Luke 10:29But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
- Job 1:1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
- Prov 17:20One who has a perverse heart doesn’t find prosperity, and one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.
- Jas 3:2For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn’t stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.
- Luke 16:15He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
- Isa 6:5Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”
- Matt 12:36–37I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
- Prov 10:19In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.
- Job 35:16Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”
- Job 33:8–13“Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying,
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.