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Job 7 · a question people ask

Is Job saying he has sinned (7:20-21)?

In the text

The chapter doesn't settle it. The WEB reads 7:20 as a condition: "If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men?" (7:20). In Hebrew the verse opens with the verb alone, chata'ti, literally I have sinned, with no separate word for if (tap sinned). Then Job asks, "Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?" (7:21). He names no sin here. In chapter 6 he asked his friends, "Cause me to understand my error" (6:24), and later he asks, "How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin" (13:23). The book has said, "In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing" (1:22), and "In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips" (2:10), 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 how these fit with 7:20-21, and this study won't decide it.

The verses

“If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself? 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 7:20-21 · World English Bible
““Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand my error.”
Job 6:24 · World English Bible
“How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.”
Job 13:23 · 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 7

Job 7: What is man?

Job's "What is man, that you should magnify him" (7:17) opens with the same three Hebrew words as Psalm 8:4, and his visit (7:18) is the psalm's care for. But where the psalm goes on to "glory and honor" (Psalm 8:5), Job goes on to "test him every moment" (7:18).

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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