Job 13:26

For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job speaks directly to God in a moment of legal pleading, immediately after questioning whether divine attention is fixed on trivialities like windblown leaves and dry chaff. He is responding to his friends' accusations and demanding a direct accounting.

The words — The Hebrew verbs תִכְתֹּב (tikh.to, "you write") and תוֹרִישֵׁנִי (to.ri.shi.ni, "you cause to inherit") frame God as recording מְרֹר֑וֹת (me.ro.rot, "bitter things") and עֲוֹנוֹת נְעוּרָי (a.vo.not ne.u.ra.i, "iniquities of my youth") against Job.

The thread — The theme of divine record-keeping and youthful iniquity runs to Psalms 25:7, which pleads for God not to remember the sins of youth, while Ruth 1:20 echoes the "bitter" descriptor regarding God's dealings. John 5:14 is supplied as a cross-reference with a direct command to stop sinning.

Why it lands — The text presents God as a scribe who maintains a ledger of past failures, asking the reader to confront how they interpret divine memory of human fault. It requires the reader to decide whether to demand erasure of that record or to face its weight directly.

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

כִּֽי־ki-for תִכְתֹּ֣בtikh.Toyou write עָלַ֣י'a.La/ion/ me מְרֹר֑וֹתme.ro.Rotbitter things וְ֝תוֹרִישֵׁ֗נִיve./to.ri.She./niand/ you cause to inherit/ me עֲוֹנ֥וֹתa.vo.Not[the] iniquities of נְעוּרָֽי׃ne.'u.Ra/iyouth<s>/ my

King James Version

For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.

Cross-references

Psalms 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD.
John 5:14 Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
Ruth 1:20 “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.
Job 3:20 Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
Job 20:11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
Psalms 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
Proverbs 5:11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
Jeremiah 31:19 After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
John 5:5 One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.