Job 9:20

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Although I am innocent, my mouth would condemn me; although I am blameless, it would declare me perverse.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

אִם־אֶ֭צְדָּק פִּ֣י יַרְשִׁיעֵ֑נִי תָּֽם־אָ֝֗נִי וַֽיַּעְקְשֵֽׁנִי׃

Transliteration

ʾim-ʾeṣdāq pî yaršîʿēnî tām-ʾānî wa-yaʿqəšēnî

Grammar Details

• *ʾim-ʾeṣdāq*: conditional particle + qal imperfect 1st person singular - if I justify myself
• *pî*: masculine singular noun + 1st person singular suffix - my mouth
• *yaršîʿēnî*: hiphil imperfect 3rd masculine singular + 1st person singular suffix - will condemn me
• *tām-ʾānî*: adjective masculine singular + 1st person singular independent pronoun - blameless am I
• *wa-yaʿqəšēnî*: conjunction + qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular + 1st person singular suffix - yet he will declare me crooked

Word Meanings

• *ʾeṣdāq*: to be right, be just, be righteous
• *pî*: mouth, opening, speech
• *yaršîʿēnî*: to declare guilty, condemn, prove wrong
• *tām*: complete, blameless, perfect
• *yaʿqəšēnî*: to twist, pervert, make crooked

Referenced Verses

• Job 34:35 : 35 that Job speaks without knowledge and his words are without understanding.
• Job 15:5-6 : 5 Your sin inspires your mouth; you choose the language of the crafty. 6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you.
• Job 32:1-2 : 1 V. The Speeches of Elihu(32:1-37:24)Elihu’s First Speech So these three men refused to answer Job further, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry. He was angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.
• Job 33:8-9 : 8 Elihu Rejects Job’s Plea of Innocence“Indeed, you have said in my hearing(I heard the sound of the words!): 9 ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean and have no iniquity. 10 Yet God finds occasions with me; he regards me as his enemy! 11 He puts my feet in shackles; he watches closely all my paths.’ 12 Now in this, you are not right– I answer you, for God is greater than a human being. 13 Why do you contend against him, that he does not answer all a person’s words?
• Job 1:1 : 1 ¶ I. The Prologue(1:1-2:13)Job’s Good Life There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
• Job 4:17 : 17 “Is a mortal man righteous before God? Or a man pure before his Creator?
• Job 9:2 : 2 “Truly, I know that this is so. But how can a human be just before God?
• Job 35:16 : 16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; without knowledge he multiplies words.”
• Ps 130:3 : 3 If you, O LORD, were to keep track of sins, O Lord, who could stand before you?
• Ps 143:2 : 2 Do not sit in judgment on your servant, for no one alive is innocent before you.
• Prov 10:19 : 19 When words abound, transgression is inevitable, but the one who restrains his words is wise.
• Prov 17:20 : 20 The one who has a perverse heart does not find good, and the one who is deceitful in speech falls into trouble.
• Isa 6:5 : 5 I said,“Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”
• Matt 12:36-37 : 36 I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
• Luke 10:29 : 29 But the expert, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus,“And who is my neighbor?”
• Luke 16:15 : 15 But Jesus said to them,“You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.
• Phil 3:12-15 : 12 Keep Going Forward Not that I have already attained this– that is, I have not already been perfected– but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let those of us who are“perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.
• 1 Tim 6:5 : 5 and constant bickering by people corrupted in their minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a way of making a profit.
• Jas 3:2 : 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual, able to control the entire body as well.