Job 40:8 kjv
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Job 40:8 nkjv
"Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?
Job 40:8 niv
"Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
Job 40:8 esv
Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
Job 40:8 nlt
"Will you discredit my justice
and condemn me just to prove you are right?
Job 40 8 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Gen 18:25 | "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" | God's inherent and unwavering justice. |
| Deut 32:4 | "A God of faithfulness and without iniquity... just and upright is He." | God's perfect justice and upright character. |
| Ps 51:4 | "...that You may be justified when You speak and blameless when You judge." | God is always righteous and blameless in His judgments. |
| Ps 143:2 | "...for in Your sight no one living is righteous." | Humanity's inherent inability to achieve righteousness before God. |
| Job 9:2 | "How can a man be righteous before God?" | Job's own earlier acknowledgement of human inadequacy before God. |
| Job 9:3 | "If one wished to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand." | The impossibility of a human disputing God's judgments. |
| Job 23:3 | "Oh that I knew where I might find Him! ...I would present my case before Him." | Job's yearning for a legal hearing with God, which God here addresses. |
| Job 27:6 | "I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go..." | Job's persistent commitment to his own righteousness, challenged by God. |
| Isa 45:9 | "Woe to him who strives with his Maker!" | Rebuke against those who challenge or argue with their Creator. |
| Isa 45:10 | "Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’" | Against judging or questioning the Creator's inherent right and action. |
| Jer 12:1 | "Righteous are You, O Lord, when I complain to You..." | A prophet acknowledging God's righteousness even amidst complaints. |
| Rom 3:4 | "...Let God be true though every man a liar, as it is written: 'That You may be justified in Your words...'" | God's truth and righteousness stand supreme, despite human falsehood. |
| Rom 3:10 | "None is righteous, no, not one..." | Universal human unrighteousness and lack of self-justification. |
| Rom 3:20 | "...by works of the law no human being will be justified..." | Justification is not achieved by human effort or performance. |
| Rom 4:5 | "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly..." | Justification comes through faith in God, not human works. |
| Rom 9:20 | "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its moldmaker, 'Why have you made me like this?'" | Human humility and non-entitlement to question God's sovereign choices. |
| 1 Cor 4:4 | "...it is the Lord who judges me." | The ultimate judge of human conduct is the Lord alone. |
| 1 Pet 2:23 | "He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously." | Christ's example of submitting to and trusting God's righteous judgment. |
| Jas 4:10 | "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." | The biblical call for humility before divine authority. |
| Rev 15:3 | "Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!" | Affirmation of God's perfect and righteous judgments. |
| Gen 1:1 | "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." | God as Creator establishes His ultimate authority and right to judge. |
| Ps 50:6 | "The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge!" | The cosmos proclaims God's justice; He alone is the Supreme Judge. |
Job 40 verses
Job 40 8 Meaning
God directly confronts Job, challenging his presumed moral authority to overturn divine judgment or declare God wicked, simply to establish Job’s own righteousness. This rhetorical question highlights the absurdity and profound arrogance of a finite human trying to correct the infinite Creator's justice.
Job 40 8 Context
Job 40:8 is part of the Lord's second discourse to Job, spoken from the whirlwind (Job 40:6), following Job's humble, albeit brief, response in Job 40:3-5. This verse sharpens the divine interrogation, moving beyond God's display of cosmic power in creation (Job 38-39) to directly challenge Job's presumption concerning divine justice. Throughout the book, Job has earnestly sought to vindicate his integrity, implicitly or explicitly suggesting that God has wronged him or judged him unfairly by allowing his suffering. God's question here brings that underlying challenge to the fore, confronting the audacity of a finite human presuming to sit in judgment over God's own perfect justice. It highlights the profound gap between human and divine wisdom and establishes God’s sole authority in judging righteousness.
Job 40 8 Word analysis
- "Will you even": This phrase introduces a rhetorical question designed to express disbelief, exasperation, and firm challenge. It underlines the utter insolence implied in Job's position, signaling that God finds such a thought profoundly audacious and out of place for a created being.
- "annul": (Hebrew: הֵפֵר, hefer). This verb means "to break," "to make void," "to frustrate," "to violate," or "to disannul." It implies an active and forceful attempt to nullify or overturn something established. Here, it denotes Job's internal desire to invalidate God's judgment, as if a human could possess such authority.
- "My judgment": (Hebrew: מִשְׁפָּטִי, mishpati). Derived from mishpat, signifying "judgment," "justice," "ordinance," or "divine decree." The suffix "-i" means "My," explicitly referring to God’s personal, inherent, and comprehensive righteousness, as well as the execution of His just will and decisions. It speaks to God’s unwavering right and capacity to perfectly govern and adjudicate.
- "Will you condemn Me": (Hebrew: תַּרְשִׁיעֵנִי, tarshi'eini). This verb comes from the root רָשַׁע (rasha), meaning "to be wicked," "to declare guilty," "to condemn," or "to act wickedly." God asks if Job would presume to declare Him guilty or morally corrupt. It is a direct confrontation of Job’s unarticulated thought that God might be unjust or arbitrary in allowing his suffering.
- "that you may be justified": (Hebrew: תִּצְדָּק, titzdak). From the root צָדַק (tsadak), which means "to be righteous," "to be just," "to be acquitted," or "to be vindicated." This crucial phrase exposes the ultimate motive for Job’s presumed challenge: to prove his own righteousness, even if it requires diminishing or condemning God’s. It highlights a common human error of prioritizing self-vindication over acknowledging God’s supreme justice.
Words-group analysis:
- "Will you even annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me?": These two parallel rhetorical questions together intensify the challenge to Job. They underscore two inseparable aspects of Job's implicit contention: attempting to override God's authoritative verdict and accusing God of wrongdoing. This parallelism powerfully conveys the unthinkably presumptuous nature of the human standing against the Divine.
- "that you may be justified": This concluding phrase clearly articulates the goal or motive God attributes to Job. It points to a deep human impulse: to establish one’s own innocence or righteousness, often at the expense of attributing fault to another, even God. God here reveals that Job’s complaints ultimately stem from a desire for self-vindication that crosses the line into judging the very Source of justice.
Job 40 8 Bonus section
This verse encapsulates a crucial theological truth: the inherent audacitvy and impossibility of humanity judging God. It exposes a deeply ingrained human tendency to interpret circumstances through our limited ethical framework and, when suffering arises without an immediate humanly perceivable cause, to project our own standards onto divine providence. God, in this question, emphasizes that His righteousness is not a negotiable concept based on human experience or suffering. For any creature to condemn the Creator is to declare Him less just than oneself, an absurdity given His absolute holiness and ultimate wisdom. The verse forces a confrontation with the true nature of God's sovereignty, where His justice stands unimpeachable regardless of our limited understanding.
Job 40 8 Commentary
Job 40:8 represents the pivotal point in God's second speech, directly addressing Job's central complaint throughout the book: that he has been unfairly treated by a seemingly unjust God. God confronts Job not only with His unsearchable power but now, even more sharply, with His unquestionable justice. The verse compels Job, and every reader, to acknowledge that true righteousness cannot be achieved by casting God as unrighteous. It underscores that human suffering and finite understanding never provide sufficient grounds to challenge the perfect moral authority of the Creator. God is reminding Job that to claim justice for oneself by indicting God's character is the height of human hubris and reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of both God's nature and human limits. This verse ultimately calls for a profound humility before God’s incomprehensible wisdom and perfect justice, demanding trust rather than human scrutiny or condemnation.