Job 9:20

Modern

Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

Traditional

If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.

Literal

If I were righteous, my own mouth would declare me wicked; if I were blameless, then it would declare me perverse.

Latin

Si justificare me voluero, os meum condemnabit me; si innocentem ostendero, pravum me comprobabit.

Hebrew

English

Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

Job answered Bildad by describing God's universal and legal power. His speech resembles a complex legal case.

It includes:

A summons and response (9:3, 14–16, 19b, 32).
The risk of proving himself guilty (9:20).
A "mediator" (9:33–34).
A question of accusation (9:12).
A legal sentence (9:22).
A declaration of guilt (9:28–30).

Job 32:1–2
So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
Philippians 3:12–15
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Psalm 130:3
If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
Psalm 143:2
Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
Job 4:17
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
Job 15:5–6
For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
Job 34:35
‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.’
Job 9:2
“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?
Isaiah 6:5
Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
Job 35:16
So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”
Job 33:8–13
Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words:
Job 1:1
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.