Bible Strands
Job 9:2
“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks these words in direct response to Bildad’s preceding speech, acknowledging a theological point while questioning human standing. The dialogue occurs during Job’s suffering, where he addresses his friend rather than God directly.
The words — יָדַ֣עְתִּי (ya.Da'.ti) translates literally as “I know,” and יִּצְדַּ֖ק (yitz.Dak) means “will he be justified” or “be righteous.” These terms establish the verse’s structure: affirmation of a premise followed by a rhetorical challenge.
The thread — The same inquiry into human righteousness before God appears in Job 4:17, Job 25:4, and Psalms 143:2. Each reference repeats the motif of mortal impurity when measured against divine holiness.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader confront the impossibility of human self-justification without providing immediate resolution. It requires honest admission of limitation rather than defensive argument.
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
I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
Cross-references
- Job 4:17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
- Job 25:4 How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
- Psalms 143:2 Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- 1 Kings 8:46 When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near,
- Job 14:3 Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?
- Job 32:2 This kindled the anger of Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. He burned with anger against Job for justifying himself rather than God,
- Job 33:9 ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
- Job 34:5 For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
- Psalms 130:3 If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?