Job 10:1

JOB 10

THE CONCLUSION OF JOB'S RESPONSE TO BILDAD:

JOB EARNESTLY DENIES THAT HE IS WICKED

Job 10:1-7

"My soul is weary of my life;

I will give free course to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul;

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;

Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.

Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress,

That thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands,

And shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

Hast thou eyes of flesh?

Or seest thou as man seeth?

Are thy days as the days of man,

Or thy years as man's days,

That thou inquirest after mine iniquity,

And searchest after my sin,

Although thou knowest that I am not wicked,

And there is none that can deliver me out of thy hand?"

"I will give free course to my complaint" (Job 10:1). Job's friends had implied that they were critical of his complaints; but Job here affirmed his right to speak of his wretchedness.

"I will say unto God, Do not condemn me" (Job 10:2). Job still trusted God to do the right thing, even as Abraham had said, "Shall not the God of all the earth do right" (Genesis 18:25)?

"That thou inquirest after mine iniquity" (Job 10:6). In these lines Job tacitly admits his sin and iniquity, insisting only that he does not know what it is, and pleading with God to, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me" (Job 10:2). There was a marvelous integrity resident in Job's heart; and no one can wonder that even God was especially well pleased with it, and that God, in effect, challenged Satan to destroy it if he could.

"Thou knowest that I am not wicked" (Job 10:7). This is not a contradiction of what Job had just said in Job 10:6. Some sin, unknown to himself, Job freely admitted; but wicked, he was not!