Job 23:4

American Standard Version (1901)

I would set my cause in order before him, And fill my mouth with arguments.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

אֶעֶרְכָ֣ה לְפָנָ֣יו מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וּ֝פִ֗י אֲמַלֵּ֥א תוֹכָחֽוֹת׃

Transliteration

ʾeʿerəkâ ləpānāyw mišpāṭ û-pî ʾămallēʾ tôkāḥôt

Grammar Details

• *ʾeʿerəkâ*: Qal imperfect, 1st person singular (cohortative) - I would set in order/arrange
• *ləpānāyw*: preposition + noun, plural + 3rd masculine singular suffix - before him/in his presence
• *mišpāṭ*: noun, masculine singular - judgment/case/cause/legal claim
• *û-pî*: conjunction + noun, masculine singular + 1st person singular suffix - and my mouth
• *ʾămallēʾ*: Piel imperfect, 1st person singular - I would fill
• *tôkāḥôt*: noun, feminine plural - arguments/reproofs/rebuke

Word Meanings

• *ʿārak*: to arrange, set in order, prepare, organize
• *pānîm*: face, presence, countenance
• *mišpāṭ*: judgment, justice, legal case, legal claim, court proceeding
• *māleʾ*: to fill, be full, be satisfied
• *tôkāḥâ*: argument, reproof, rebuke, correction, reasoned case

Referenced Verses

• Job 13:18 : 18 Behold now, I have set my cause in order; I know that I am righteous.
• Job 37:19 : 19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; [For] we cannot set [our speech] in order by reason of darkness.
• Ps 25:11 : 11 For thy name's sake, O Jehovah, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.
• Ps 43:1 : 1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: Oh deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
• Isa 43:26 : 26 Put me in remembrance; let us plead together: set thou forth [thy cause], that thou mayest be justified.
• Dan 9:18-19 : 18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies' sake. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
• Gen 18:25-32 : 25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 26 And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. 27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes: 28 peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, I will not destroy it, if I find there forty and five. 29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for the forty's sake. 30 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. 31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake. 32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the ten's sake.
• Gen 32:12 : 12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
• Exod 32:12-13 : 12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
• Num 14:13-19 : 13 And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16 Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17 And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18 Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. 19 Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
• Josh 7:8-9 : 8 Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after that Israel hath turned their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will compass us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do for thy great name?