Job 22:5

5 Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

Job 22:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 22:5

Is not thy wickedness great?
&c.] It must be owned it is, it cannot be denied. Indeed, the wickedness of every man's heart is great, it being desperately wicked, full of sin, abounding with it; out of it comes forth everything that is bad, and the wickedness of actions is very great: some sins are indeed greater than others, as those against God, and the first table of the law, are greater than those against men, or the second table; some are like crimson and scarlet, are beams in the eye, while others are comparatively as motes; yet all are great, as committed against God, and as they are breaches of his law; and especially they appear so to sensible sinners, to whom sin is made exceeding sinful; and they see and own themselves to be the chief of sinners, and as such entreat for pardon on that account, see ( Psalms 25:11 ) ;

and thine iniquities infinite?
strictly speaking, nothing is infinite but God; sins may be said in some sense to be infinite, because committed against an infinite God, and cannot be satisfied for by a finite creature, or by finite sufferings, only through the infinite value of the blood of Christ; here it signifies, that his iniquities were "innumerable" F14, as some versions, they were not to be reckoned up, they were so many; or, more literally, there is "no end of thine iniquities" F15, there is no summing of them up; and it may denote his continuance in them; Eliphaz suggests as if Job lived in sin, and allowed himself in it, and was going on in a course of iniquity without end, which was very uncharitable; here he charges him in a general way, and next he descends to particulars.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 (anariymhtoi) , Sept.
F15 (Kytwnwel Uq Nya) "non est finis iniquitatibus tuis", Pagninus, Montanus

Job 22:5 In-Context

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, That he enters with you into judgment?
5 Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, And stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 You haven't given water to the weary to drink, And you have withheld bread from the hungry.
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