Job 16:17

17 Quoiqu'il n'y ait point de crime dans mes mains, et que ma prière soit pure.

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 J'ai cousu un sac sur ma peau; j'ai souillé mon front dans la poussière;
16 J'ai le visage tout enflammé, à force de pleurer, et l'ombre de la mort est sur mes paupières,
17 Quoiqu'il n'y ait point de crime dans mes mains, et que ma prière soit pure.
18 O terre, ne cache point mon sang, et qu'il n'y ait aucun lieu où s'arrête mon cri!
19 A présent même, voici, j'ai mon témoin dans les cieux, et mon garant dans les hauts lieux.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.