Bible Strands
Job 14:16
For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God in a moment of anticipatory hope for restoration, positioned between his petition for divine response in verse 15 and his declaration of forgiven iniquity in verse 17.
The words — The Hebrew תִסְפּוֹר (tispor) means "you will count," set against תִשְׁמוֹר (tishmor), "you will watch," to contrast the divine accounting of righteous conduct with the deliberate non-accounting of sin.
The thread — The motif of God measuring human steps appears in Job 31:4 and Job 34:21, while Job 10:6 presents the direct contrast of God actively seeking out iniquity.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states that God will count the speaker’s steps yet refuse to keep track of his sin. This demands a reader to recognize that divine scrutiny of behavior does not necessitate relentless punishment, but rather establishes a basis for trusting God’s mercy over past transgressions.
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
For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
Cross-references
- Job 10:6 that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
- Job 31:4 Does He not see my ways and count my every step?
- Job 34:21 For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.
- Psalms 139:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
- Proverbs 5:21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
- Job 33:11 He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’
- Jeremiah 32:19 the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.
- Job 13:27 You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet.
- Psalms 56:6 They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps while they wait to take my life.
- Job 10:14 If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.