Job 6:29

Comeback, there is no wrong in me.

   Comeback, my integrity is intact.

(Written 3/23, Posted  4/5)

Tonight, hopefully, I will start leading another financial class. It will be a new format, but the fourth time leading a group through this material. Last night while thinking things through, I came to the realization that I have a six-year window in my next financial season and that my goals should be set for that six-year timeframe. It was an amazing release to recognize this well-known fact, but a stress relief none the less. (Six years is when the little one graduates high school.)

As noted in the last verse, I think Job is speaking to God and not to his companions. The nominal view is that Job is begging his companions to listen to him. I just do not buy that.

“Comeback” was also suggested as “turn”, “relent”, “yield”, “return”, and “stay”. Stay, return, and turn all have the same basic meaning as comeback. However, relent and yield go a bit further. To me, asking an unchanging God to yield or relent is too presumptuous, therefore I stuck with comeback.

“There is no wrong in me” is also somewhat different than the other options presented by my sources. These included:

• I pray, let no wrong be done.
• Do not be unjust.
• Let there be no injustice.
• I pray you, let it not be iniquity.
• Let there not be injustice.
• You’ll find no evil here.
• Pray, let there be no injustice.

Job has just asked God to listen to him. Now Job is repeating to God that he has not done wrong. The whole “Let there be no iniquity” idea misses this profession by Job. The “You’ll find no evil here” is also accurate, but not as personal.

The second “comeback” was suggested as “turn (again)”, “reconsider”, “concede”, “return (again)”, “relent (again)”, and “stay”. The overwhelming impression was that Job used the same word twice, so I did.

“My integrity is intact” is closer to some of the other options which included the following or similar variations:

• My vindication is at stake.
• My righteousness still stands.
• I am still in the right.
• Only my vindication

Only one is clearly not Job making a proclamation, but “only my vindication” seems incomplete.

Job is wrapping up the first half of his response to Eliphaz and being adamant that his punishment was not due to evil actions. We need to admire this steadfastness of Job as it follows from his previous steadfastness in following God in the first place. As God does not change, neither does Job. Truly a man after God’s own heart.