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Job 27 · a question people ask

"My heart will not reproach me so long as I live" (27:6). Is Job saying he has never sinned?

In the text

Read what the oath says. Job swears he will not justify the friends and will not put away his integrity (27:5), and says, "I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live" (27:6). In earlier chapters he speaks of his own disobedience and iniquity. He asked God, "Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?" (7:21), said to God, "you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth" (13:26), and said, "My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity" (14:17). The book itself calls him "blameless and upright" (1:1), and says, "In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing" (1:22). These are Job's words and the book's, set side by side. The chapter doesn't say how Job holds them together, and these notes give no verdict.

The verses

“Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.”
Job 27:5-6 · 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
“For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.”
Job 13:26 · World English Bible
“My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.”
Job 14:17 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 27

Job 27: Until I die

Job swears that God "has taken away my right" (27:2) and that he will not "put away my integrity" (27:5): in Hebrew taken away and put away are one verb. And integrity and hold fast (27:5-6) are the words of chapter 2's "He still maintains his integrity" (2:3).

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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