Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
Job 9:21 belongs to Job's reply in which he argues that suffering does not prove guilt. It belongs to his wrestling with overruling providence and the age-old problems of sin and suffering that have perplexed humanity through all ages. God was disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction, so the verse does not mean his suffering was because of sin, though his three friends charged him with sin and declared his sufferings came from sin.
Even while holding to his blamelessness and integrity, Job expressed despair in affliction. He confessed that he could not make sense of his own life and would reject it. He could not understand his own life and God's dealings with him, and he would despise his life.
In saying this, he did not charge God foolishly. The verse exposes how prone people are to misjudge their fellows in affliction in the same way as Job's friends did. Even if he were perfect, Job would not know his own soul and inner condition, which shows that people cannot reliably judge or profess their own perfection because they do not fully see themselves.
Job 9:21 belongs to Job's reply in which he argues that suffering does not prove guilt. It belongs to his wrestling with overruling providence and the age-old problems of sin and suffering that have perplexed humanity through all ages. God was disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction, so the verse does not mean his suffering was because of sin, though his three friends charged him with sin and declared his sufferings came from sin.
Even while holding to his blamelessness and integrity, Job expressed despair in affliction. He confessed that he could not make sense of his own life and would reject it. He could not understand his own life and God's dealings with him, and he would despise his life.
In saying this, he did not charge God foolishly. The verse exposes how prone people are to misjudge their fellows in affliction in the same way as Job's friends did. Even if he were perfect, Job would not know his own soul and inner condition, which shows that people cannot reliably judge or profess their own perfection because they do not fully see themselves.