Job 11 · a question people ask

Was Zophar right that God exacts less than Job's iniquity deserves?

In the text

Zophar says, "Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves" (11:6). Other Scripture says something like it of God's people. Ezra prays, "you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve" (Ezra 9:13), and a psalm says, "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10). In Hebrew Ezra's iniquities is the word of 11:6's iniquity. Job himself speaks of his iniquity, asking God, "Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?" (7:21), and "that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?" (10:6), and he goes on, "Although you know that I am not wicked" (10:7). Ezra says it of his own people, "for our evil deeds and for our great guilt" (Ezra 9:13), and Zophar says it to Job about what has come on Job. The book has told you, in its opening chapters, that the LORD called Job "a blameless and an upright man" (1:8), and said Job was ruined "without cause" (2:3). What the book says of the three friends' words is 42:7, and it doesn't say which words it means. These notes set the verses side by side and add no verdict of their own on Zophar.

The verses

“that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.”
Job 11:6 · World English Bible
““After all that has come on us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,”
Ezra 9:13 · World English Bible
“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.”
Psalm 103:10 · World English Bible
“Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.””
Job 7:21 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 11

Job 11: Can you fathom the mystery of God?

Zophar's words about God, "high as heaven" and "deeper than Sheol" (11:8), are the kind other Scripture says of God too (Psalm 145:3). But he said them to a man the LORD had called "blameless" (1:8), with "God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves" (11:6).

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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