My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
The verse stands in chapters 22 to 24 among Job's answers to the constant accusations of his friends. More particularly it belongs to his answer to the third speech of Eliphaz accusing him, on the way to his last reply after his friends cease troubling him. It belongs to the account of Job's uprightness, trial, and patience. Its force and meaning are best grasped in the context of Job as a connected whole rather than as an isolated fragment.
The verse expresses a person's faithfulness to God in that his foot has held to God's steps, he has kept God's way, and he has not turned aside from it. Job's claim to have kept God's way expresses the integrity he maintained even while suffering and struggling to understand God's dealings with him. The verse shows confidence in God's mercy, joined to teaching about the end of the wicked. It contrasts lawfulness with abandoning the Sabbath, illustrating remaining faithful to God as opposed to forgetting God's law, which brings loss of concern for one's children.
Together with Job 23:10-13, the verse supplies words of comfort in a funeral service.
The verse stands in chapters 22 to 24 among Job's answers to the constant accusations of his friends. More particularly it belongs to his answer to the third speech of Eliphaz accusing him, on the way to his last reply after his friends cease troubling him. It belongs to the account of Job's uprightness, trial, and patience. Its force and meaning are best grasped in the context of Job as a connected whole rather than as an isolated fragment.
The verse expresses a person's faithfulness to God in that his foot has held to God's steps, he has kept God's way, and he has not turned aside from it. Job's claim to have kept God's way expresses the integrity he maintained even while suffering and struggling to understand God's dealings with him. The verse shows confidence in God's mercy, joined to teaching about the end of the wicked. It contrasts lawfulness with abandoning the Sabbath, illustrating remaining faithful to God as opposed to forgetting God's law, which brings loss of concern for one's children.
Together with Job 23:10-13, the verse supplies words of comfort in a funeral service.