Bible Strands
Job 9:29
Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks directly to God during a judicial monologue, declaring that he anticipates condemnation regardless of his conduct. He voices this at the precise moment he concludes that divine acquittal is impossible.
The words — אֶרְשָׁע (er.sha) literally means "I will be guilty," and הֶבֶל (he.vel) literally means "vanity" or "breath." The text pairs these terms to state that future condemnation is already assumed, rendering subsequent effort empty.
The thread — This assertion of futile striving against a fixed verdict appears in Job 10:2, where Job demands to know why God prosecutes him, and Job 10:7, which notes God's knowledge of his innocence yet lack of deliverance. The same judicial despair surfaces in Job 9:22, where Job observes that God destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to examine the practical consequence of a closed legal process: when the verdict is predetermined, moral effort loses its functional purpose. It asks how one continues to act when the system offers no mechanism for change.
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, why then labour I in vain?
Cross-references
- Job 10:7 though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
- Job 9:22 It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
- Job 10:2 I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
- Job 10:14 If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
- Job 21:16 Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
- Job 21:27 Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
- Job 22:5 Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?
- Psalms 37:33 the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned under judgment.
- Psalms 73:13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands.
- Jeremiah 2:35 you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’