Job 27:4

4 My lips do not speak perverseness, And my tongue doth not utter deceit.

Job 27:4 Meaning and Commentary

Job 27:4

My lips shall not speak wickedness
This is the thing he swears to, this the matter of his oath, not only that he would not speak a wicked word not anything corrupt, unsavoury, unchaste, profane, and idle nor speak evil of his neighbours and friends or of any man; but that he would not speak wickedly of himself, as he must do, if he owned himself to be a wicked man and an hypocrite as his friends charged him, and they would have had him confessed; but he swears he would not utter such wickedness as long as he had any breath in him:

nor my tongue utter deceit;
which respects the same thing; not merely any fallacy or lie, or what might impose upon and deceive another, which yet he was careful of; but such deceit and falsehood as would be a belying himself, which would be the case should he say that he was devoid of integrity and sincerity.

Job 27:4 In-Context

2 God liveth! He turned aside my judgment, And the Mighty -- He made my soul bitter.

3 For all the while my breath [is] in me, And the spirit of God in my nostrils.

4 My lips do not speak perverseness, And my tongue doth not utter deceit.

5 Pollution to me -- if I justify you, Till I expire I turn not aside mine integrity from me.

6 On my righteousness I have laid hold, And I do not let it go, My heart doth not reproach me while I live.