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Job 10 · a question people ask

Is Job accusing God of doing wrong?

In the text

Job asks, "Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?" (10:3), and says, "Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me" (10:8). Whether those words are right or wrong, the chapter doesn't say: from 9:1 to 10:22 it is all Job's words, and the book adds nothing in its own voice. Before this the book said, "In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing" (1:22); that verse speaks of chapter 1. When the LORD answers, he asks Job, "Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?" (40:8), where condemn is the verb of 10:2's "Do not condemn me" (tap condemn). And at the end the LORD says to Eliphaz, "you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book doesn't say which of Job's words either verse has in view, or how they fit together, and this study doesn't decide it.

The verses

“Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?”
Job 10:3 · World English Bible
““‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.”
Job 10:8 · World English Bible
“Then Job answered,”
Job 9:1 · World English Bible
“In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.”
Job 1:22 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 10

Job 10: Your hands have framed me

In Hebrew, the preserved of "Your visitation has preserved my spirit" (10:12) and the mark of "if I sin, then you mark me" (10:14) are one verb, shamar, two verses apart. It is the verb of the LORD's words to Satan: "Only spare his life" (2:6).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions