Job 9:20
Though I were innocent, my mouth would convict me,
Though I were blameless, it would prove me guilty.
Looking back, I wanted this to be the same upright and blameless from chapter 1. Not sure why I did not think so at the time. I recently met a man who has some experience with being on a grand jury. I was glad to hear that self defense was active in the court system. One particular scenario is when an evil man is attacked for his actions, and he defends himself. He is still evil, but he does not need to be punished for doing the acceptable. Job knows he is not innocent, blameless, or upright in all things, but he knows that the misery he suffers is not from those actions.
Options in the first verse were word couples of “innocent and convict”, “innocent and condemn”, “righteous and condemn”, “justified and condemn”, and “righteous and convict”. Originally I picked the couple innocent and convict as they seem so related to each other. Justified seemed too unapplicable, until I read it as “If I use words to try and justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me.”
In the second stitch, I did not use the same word couple process and had “blameless” (6), “perfect”(1), and “innocent”(1). I simply went with the majority. I also had “prove me perverse”, “pronounce me guilty”, “prove me crooked”, “make me seem corrupt”, or some slight variation of these. I went with guilty and pulled prove in with it as they felt right together.
The King James version has the active “if I justify myself” and “if I say I am perfect”. This is actually wildly different than the passive “thought I were innocent” and “though I were blameless”. The active also balances with the mouth proving otherwise.
As my friend Allen says “The proof is in the context.” Starting in verse 14 Job is talking about talking, therefore the active words in verse 20 are not needed as it is obvious the topic is his talking in court with God. Also verse 21 and 22 use blameless and 23 uses innocent. So once again, it looks like I stick with my original suggestion.
The phrase ringing through my head is trust the process. Normally this applies to work like activities, but here I think it applies to spiritual activities. When we encounter an opportunity, we should pray to God, then wait for the answer, then we should act obediently when the answer is given. Whether it is how to render a verse or whether to go to a party or whether to call a friend or witness to a stranger. Trust the process. Pray, Wait, Respond.
(Written 8/31. Posted 9/5, Job 192)