Job 6:24

JOB'S DEMAND THAT HIS FRIENDS IDENTIFY HIS SINS

"Teach me, and I will hold my peace;

And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

How forcible are the words of righteousness!

But your reproof, what doth it reprove?

Do ye think to reprove words,

Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind?

Yea, ye would cast lots upon the fatherless,

And make merchandise of your friend.

Now therefore be pleased to look upon me;

For surely I shall not lie to your face.

Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice;

Yea, return again, my cause is righteous.

Is there injustice on my tongue?

Cannot my taste discern mischievous things?"

A paraphrase of this paragraph: "Look, If I am a sinner, tell me what it was in which I sinned. Would I lie to you? Look me in the eye. Don't get up and leave me. Stay here and help me. Am I so ignorant that I don't know what sin is.'? No matter what you think, my trouble is not caused by my wickedness. You have criticized my words; but it is silly to make a case based on the words of a man who is suffering desperately. "Allowances must be made for words uttered in deep distress."[23] "Reconsider my case, for my cause is righteous."[24]

"Return ... return" (Job 6:29). These words indicate that Job's friends, at this juncture, were on the verge of getting up and departing from him; and Job pleaded with them not to impose such an injustice upon him, still insisting that he had done no wickedness that might have been the cause of his sufferings.