Bible Strands
Job 31:11
For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks in his final oath of innocence, addressing his own conscience and God as he systematically curses himself for potential moral failures. He stands at the conclusion of a detailed self-examination where he lists specific sins he refuses to commit.
The words — The text highlights זִמָּה (zimmah), meaning wickedness or lewdness, and עָוֹן ('avon), meaning iniquity or guilt, both linked to פְּלִילִים (pelilim), judges. The phrasing frames the act not merely as a personal failing but as a judicial offense demanding trial.
The thread — This concept of moral failure as a judicial offense appears in the Torah’s death penalties for adultery (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22) and recurs in Job’s own oath when he identifies denying God as another iniquity to be judged (Job 31:28). The legal vocabulary consistently treats sin as a case requiring divine adjudication.
Why it lands — The verse demands that readers treat ethical compromise as a matter of accountability rather than private discretion. It requires immediate self-examination and a willingness to face correction before any divine tribunal.
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 this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
- Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- Job 31:28 this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.
- Genesis 38:24 About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”
- Genesis 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such tremendous guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done.”
- Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
- Proverbs 6:29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
- Ezekiel 16:38 And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.
- Genesis 26:10 “What is this you have done to us?” asked Abimelech. “One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
- Genesis 39:9 No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”