Bible Strands
Job 10:15
If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks to God during his lament, positioned between his confession of suffering and his description of divine pursuit. He articulates a moment where every possible human condition appears dangerous before God.
The words — רָשַׁ֡עְתִּי (ra.Sha'.ti) literally means "I am guilty," and שְׂבַ֥ע (se.Va') means "full" or "surfeited," describing his overwhelming shame.
The thread — The tension of inescapable judgment appears in Isaiah 3:11 and recurs in Job 9:15 and Job 9:20, where Job states he cannot answer his Judge and that his own blamelessness would only condemn him.
Why it lands — The text declares that neither guilt nor righteousness provides safety from God's scrutiny, leaving only shame and awareness of affliction. It requires a reader to abandon self-defense and face divine judgment without rhetorical escape.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
Cross-references
- Isaiah 3:11 Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
- Job 9:15 For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
- Job 9:20 Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.
- Job 10:7 though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
- Psalms 25:18 Consider my affliction and trouble, and take away all my sins.
- Isaiah 6:5 Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- Malachi 3:18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
- Exodus 3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
- Job 9:12 If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’
- Job 9:29 Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?