Job 16:17

17 (16-18) These things have I suffered without the iniquity of my hand, when I offered pure prayers to God.

Job 16:17 Meaning and Commentary

Job 16:17

Not for [any] injustice in my hands
Came all those afflictions and calamities upon him, which occasioned so much sorrow, weeping, mourning, and humiliation; he does not say there was no sin in him, not any in his heart, nor in his life, nor any iniquity done by him, he had acknowledged these things before, ( Job 7:20 ) ( Job 9:20 Job 9:30 Job 9:31 ) ; but that there was nothing in his hands gotten in an unjust manner; he had taken away no man's property, nor injured him in the least in a private way; nor had he perverted justice as a public magistrate, by taking bribes or accepting persons, and could challenge any to prove he had, as Samuel did, ( 1 Samuel 12:3 ) ;

also my prayer [is] pure:
he prayed, which disproves the calumny of Eliphaz, ( Job 15:4 ) ; and his prayer was pure too; not that it was free from failings and infirmities, which attend the best, but from hypocrisy and deceit; it came not out of feigned lips, but was put up in sincerity and truth; it sprang from an heart purified by the grace of God, and sprinkled from an evil conscience; it was put up in the faith of Christ, and as a pure offering through him; Job lifted up pure and holy hands, and with these a pure and holy heart, and for pure and holy things; so that it was not for want of doing justice to men, nor for want of devotion towards God, that be was thus afflicted by him; compare with this what is said of his antitype, ( Isaiah 53:9 ) .

Job 16:17 In-Context

15 (16-16) I have sowed sackcloth upon my skin, and have covered my flesh with ashes.
16 (16-17) My face is swollen with weeping, and my eyelids are dim.
17 (16-18) These things have I suffered without the iniquity of my hand, when I offered pure prayers to God.
18 (16-19) O earth, cover not thou my blood, neither let my cry find a hiding place in thee.
19 (16-20) For behold my witness is in heaven, and he that knoweth my conscience is on high.
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