Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.
The verse stands in the closing portion of the book within Job 20-37 and belongs to Elihu's speeches, which span Job 32-37 and come after the argument between Job and his friends closes in chapter 31. Elihu is a younger man who steps in believing his superior wisdom will correct Job, follows essentially the same line as the other friends, and is given no answer by Job. His burden is to argue that Job himself is not great and God is everything. In context Job still defends himself because he knows he has committed no open sins against God and earnestly wants God to manifest Himself to him.
The verse records Job's protest that he should not lie against his right or be called a liar for defending his innocence. His wound and terrible suffering are grievous and seem incurable and make him appear guilty, though he knows his integrity and has committed no transgression to deserve it, which he cannot understand. His persistent self-justification and insistence that he was right and suffered without guilt was provoked by his friends' false accusations. Their general claims about suffering were true but were wrongly applied to him, since affliction does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure.
Elihu rebukes Job for defending his righteousness in this way, because the claim made Job's righteousness seem greater than God's and implied that God had afflicted him unjustly. The Lord then answers Job to point out His mighty works and show His infinite power and wisdom in creation and by contrast how exceedingly small Job is. This teaches that if this is true in a material sense which Job can only partly comprehend, it is true in God's moral dealings where eternal life is at stake. Job then recognizes that God understands his character and case better than he does, learns that God is infinitely wise and good while he himself is utterly unworthy and of small account, repents of speaking beyond his knowledge in dust and ashes, and God turns his captivity and makes his latter end far more prosperous than the beginning.
The verse stands in the closing portion of the book within Job 20-37 and belongs to Elihu's speeches, which span Job 32-37 and come after the argument between Job and his friends closes in chapter 31. Elihu is a younger man who steps in believing his superior wisdom will correct Job, follows essentially the same line as the other friends, and is given no answer by Job. His burden is to argue that Job himself is not great and God is everything. In context Job still defends himself because he knows he has committed no open sins against God and earnestly wants God to manifest Himself to him.
The verse records Job's protest that he should not lie against his right or be called a liar for defending his innocence. His wound and terrible suffering are grievous and seem incurable and make him appear guilty, though he knows his integrity and has committed no transgression to deserve it, which he cannot understand. His persistent self-justification and insistence that he was right and suffered without guilt was provoked by his friends' false accusations. Their general claims about suffering were true but were wrongly applied to him, since affliction does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure.
Elihu rebukes Job for defending his righteousness in this way, because the claim made Job's righteousness seem greater than God's and implied that God had afflicted him unjustly. The Lord then answers Job to point out His mighty works and show His infinite power and wisdom in creation and by contrast how exceedingly small Job is. This teaches that if this is true in a material sense which Job can only partly comprehend, it is true in God's moral dealings where eternal life is at stake. Job then recognizes that God understands his character and case better than he does, learns that God is infinitely wise and good while he himself is utterly unworthy and of small account, repents of speaking beyond his knowledge in dust and ashes, and God turns his captivity and makes his latter end far more prosperous than the beginning.