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Job 40 · a question people ask

"Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?" (40:8). Is the LORD saying Job was in the wrong?

In the text

These are the LORD's words, asked as questions: "Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?" (40:8). His first speech had begun, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2). Job's answer in this chapter is "I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further" (40:5), and later he says, "therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand" (42:3). Then 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 holds 40:8 and 42:7 together and doesn't say how they fit, or which of Job's words each has in view. These notes set them side by side and don't reconcile them.

The verses

“Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?”
Job 40:8 · World English Bible
““Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”
Job 38:2 · World English Bible
“I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.””
Job 40:5 · World English Bible
“You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.”
Job 42:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 40

Job 40: An arm like God

When the LORD tells Job, "Array yourself with honor and majesty" (40:10), he uses the three Hebrew words of a psalm's "You are clothed with honor and majesty" (Psalm 104:1), said to the LORD. And Job's "I will proceed no further" (40:5) uses the verb of "Job again took up his parable" (27:1, 29:1).

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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