Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?
Parallel translations
- WEB I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
- KJV If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
- NKJV If I am condemned, Why then do I labor in vain?
- NASB “I am guilty, Why then should I struggle in vain?
- NLT Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what’s the use of trying?
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 feels already counted guilty before God, so striving to clear himself seems pointless. It voices the despair of one who cannot vindicate himself before the Almighty.
Overview
Continuing his reply to Bildad, Job senses that whatever he does he will be treated as condemned, making self-justification feel futile. He grasps a real truth: no sinner can win a legal case against the holy God by his own effort. The gospel answers Job's despair, for in Christ God provides the righteousness no one can labor up for himself (Romans 3:20-24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 10:7though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
- Job 21:16–17Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
- Job 10:14–17If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
- Job 22:5–30Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?
- Job 10:2I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
- Ps 37:33the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned under judgment.
- Ps 73:13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands.
- Jer 2:35you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
- Job 21:27Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
- Job 9:22It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
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 9:29 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.