Yet You will plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes will abhor me.
Parallel translations
- WEB yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.
- KJV Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
- BSB then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.
- NASB Then You would plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes would loathe me.
- NLT you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and my own filthy clothing would hate me.
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 fears that God would still plunge him into filth so that even his own clothes would loathe him. It expresses his sense of being made repulsive despite any effort to be clean.
Overview
The verse completes the thought of self-cleansing: no matter how he scrubs, Job feels God could still defile him so that his very garments would recoil. The image conveys overwhelming despair before God's seeming opposition. Job's longing to be truly clean points ahead to the One who clothes sinners in His own righteousness (Zechariah 3:3-4; Isaiah 61:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 9:20Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
- Job 15:6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
- Isa 59:6Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
- Isa 64:6For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
- Phil 3:8–9Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
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 9:31 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.