TRV
Translation
King James Version
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Complete Jewish Bible
I hold to my righteousness; I won't let it go; my heart will not shame me as long as I live.
Berean Standard Bible
I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.
American Standard Version
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: My heart shall not reproachmeso long as I live.
World English Bible Messianic
I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Geneva Bible (1599)
I will keepe my righteousnesse, and wil not forsake it: mine heart shall not reprooue me of my dayes.
Young's Literal Translation
On my righteousness I have laid hold, And I do not let it go, My heart doth not reproach me while I live.
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Commentary on Job 27 verses 1–6
1 ¶ Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job's discourse here is called a parable (mashal), the title of Solomon's proverbs, because it was grave and weighty, and very instructive, and he spoke as one having authority. It comes from a word that signifies to rule, or have dominion; and some think it intimates that Job now triumphed over his opponents, and spoke as one that had baffled them. We say of an excellent preacher that he knows how dominari in concionibus - to command his hearers. Job did so here. A long strife there had been between Job and his friends; they seemed disposed to have the matter compromised; and therefore, since an oath for confirmation is an end of strife (Heb 6:16), Job here backs all he had said in maintenance of his own integrity with a solemn oath, to silence contradiction, and take the blame entirely upon himself if he prevaricated. Observe,
I. The form of his oath (Job 27:2): As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment. Here, 1. He speaks highly of God, in calling him the living God (which means everliving, the eternal God, that has life in himself) and in appealing to him as the sole and sovereign Judge. We can swear by no greater, and it is an affront to him to swear by any other. 2. Yet he speaks hardly of him, and unbecomingly, in saying that he had taken away his judgment (that is, refused to do him justice in this controversy and to appear in defence of him), and that by continuing his troubles, on which his friends grounded their censures of him, he had taken from him the opportunity he hoped ere now to have of clearing himself. Elihu reproved him for this word (Job 34:5); for God is righteous in all his ways, and takes away no man's judgment. But see how apt we are to despair of favour if it be not shown us immediately, so poor-spirited are we and so soon weary of waiting God's time. He also charges it upon God that he had vexed his soul, had not only not appeared for him, but had appeared against him, and, by laying such grievous afflictions upon him had quite embittered his life to him and all the comforts of it. We, by our impatience, vex our own souls and then complain of God that he has vexed them. Yet see Job's confidence in the goodness both of his cause and of his God, that though God seemed to be angry with him, and to act against him for the present, yet he could cheerfully commit his cause to him.
II. The matter of his oath, Job 27:3, Job 27:4. 1. That he would not speak wickedness, nor utter deceit - that, in general, he would never allow himself in the way of lying, that, as in this debate he had all along spoken as he thought, so he would never wrong his conscience by speaking otherwise; he would never maintain any doctrine, nor assert any matter of fact, but what he believed to be true; nor would he deny the truth, how much soever it might make against him: and, whereas his friends charged him with being a hypocrite, he was ready to answer, upon oath, to all their interrogatories, if called to do so. On the one hand he would not, for all the world, deny the charge if he knew himself guilty, but would declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and take to himself the shame of his hypocrisy. On the other hand, since he was conscious to himself of his integrity, and that he was not such a man as his friends represented him, he would never betray his integrity, nor charge himself with that which he was innocent of. He would not be brought, no, not by the rack of their unjust censures, falsely to accuse himself. If we must not bear false witness against our neighbour, then not against ourselves. 2. That he would adhere to this resolution as long as he lived (Job 27:3): All the while my breath is in me. Our resolutions against sin should be thus constant, resolutions for life. In things doubtful and indifferent, it is not safe to be thus peremptory. We know not what reason we may see to change our mind: God may reveal to us that which we now are not aware of. But in so plain a thing as this we cannot be too positive that we will never speak wickedness. Something of a reason for his resolution is here implied - that our breath will not be always in us. We must shortly breathe our last, and therefore, while our breath is in us, we must never breathe wickedness and deceit, nor allow ourselves to say or do any thing which will make against us when our breath shall depart. The breath in us is called the spirit of God, because he breathed it into us; and this is another reason why we must not speak wickedness. It is God that gives us life and breath, and therefore, while we have breath, we must praise him.
III. The explication of his oath (Job 27:5, Job 27:6): "God forbid that I should justify you in your uncharitable censures of me, by owning myself a hypocrite: no, until I die I will not remove my integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." 1. He would always be an honest man, would hold fast his integrity, and not curse God, as Satan, by his wife, urged him to do, Job 2:9. Job here thinks of dying, and of getting ready for death, and therefore resolves never to part with his religion, though he had lost all he had in the world. Note, The best preparative for death is perseverance to death in our integrity. "Until I die," that is, "though I die by this affliction, I will not thereby be put out of conceit with my God and my religion. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 2. He would always stand to it that he was an honest man; he would not remove, he would not part with, the conscience, and comfort, and credit of his integrity; he was resolved to defend it to the last. "God knows, and my own heart knows, that I always meant well, and did not allow myself in the omission of any known duty or the commission of any known sin. This is my rejoicing, and no man shall rob me of it; I will never lie against my right." It has often been the lot of upright men to be censured and condemned as hypocrites; but it well becomes them to bear up boldly against such censures, and not to be discouraged by them nor think the worse of themselves for them; as the apostle (Heb 13:18): We have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.
Hic murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi.
Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence,
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.
Job complained much of the reproaches of his friends; but (says he) my heart shall not reproach me, that is, "I will never give my heart cause to reproach me, but will keep a conscience void of offence; and, while I do so, I will not give my heart leave to reproach me." Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. To resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us when we give them cause to do so is to affront God, whose deputy conscience is, and to wrong ourselves; for it is a good thing, when a man has sinned, to have a heart within him to smite him for it, Sa2 24:10. But to resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us while we still hold fast our integrity is to baffle the designs of the evil spirit (who tempts good Christians to question their adoption, If thou be the Son of God) and to concur with the operations of the good Spirit, who witnesses to their adoption.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–6. Public domain.
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Ephrem the SyrianAD 373
COMMENTARY ON JOB 27:6
“I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go.” That means, I will not surrender, nor will the perseverance and resolution of my soul yield, but I will patiently and bravely bear my calamity.
John ChrysostomAD 407
COMMENTARY ON JOB 27:5B-6
This is what Job means, one who is full of iniquity has neither liberty to express himself nor to say what I say now. Rather, he has been taken away and stays silent. On the contrary, I did not experience that, but I speak and answer. But the same does not happen to those who are iniquitous.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
For ‘his righteousness’ that he had ‘begun with,’ he would ‘abandon,’ if he went out of the way into the praising of persons committing sin. But because we then more truly keep away from the sins of others when we first keep ourselves safe from our own, why he is so afraid to be guilty touching those, he gives the grounds of the principle, when he adds; For neither doth mine heart reproach me in all my life.
9. As if he expressed himself in plain words; ‘On your account I ought not to be drawn into guilt, in that I have dreaded to commit sin in my own affairs.’ But it is a thing to be known, that everyone that is at variance with the precepts of the Lord in practice, as often as he hears them, is reproached and confounded by his own heart, because that which he has never done is brought to recollection. For whereinsoever it sees itself to have done amiss, the conscience by itself secretly accuses self. Whence the prophet David beseeches, saying, Then may I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments. [Ps. 119, 6] For greatly ‘ashamed’ is every man, when either by reading or hearing them he turns his eye to the precepts of God, which by his way of living he has disregarded. Thus it is hence declared by the voice of John, If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him. [1 John 3, 21. 22.] As if he said in plain speech, ‘If that He bids, we do, that we ask, we shall obtain.’
10. For with God both these two do of necessity match with one another exactly, that practice should be sustained by prayer, and prayer by practice. Thus it is hence that Jeremiah saith; Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens. [Lam. 3, 40. 41.] For to ‘search our ways’ is to sift what is inmost in the thoughts. But he ‘lifts up his heart with his hands,’ who strengthens his prayer by good works. For he that prays, but shuts his eyes to practice, ‘lifts up the heart,’ but does not ‘lift up the hands.’ But whosoever practises, but does not pray, ‘lifts up the hands,’ but does not ‘lift up the heart.’ And so according to the voice of John, the heart then acquires confidence in prayer, when no wickedness of life withstands it. Of which same confidence it is rightly said now by the holy man; For neither doth mine heart reproach me in all my life. As though he said in plain speech, ‘It never remembers to have been guilty of that, whereby it might be made ashamed in its prayers.’ But it may be asked, on what principle he declares that he is not reproached by his heart, seeing that he accuses himself above of having sinned, saying, I have sinned: what shall I do unto Thee, O Thou Preserver of men? [Job 7, 20] Or surely, If I would justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. [Job 9, 20]
11. But it is requisite to be known that there are sins that by righteous men are possible to be avoided, and there are some sins which even by righteous men are not possible to be avoided. For what man’s heart, whilst bound up with this corruptible flesh, does not slip in ill bent thought, even if be not plunged into the very pit of consenting? And yet to think these same wrong thoughts is to commit sin. But while there is a resisting of the thought, the soul is freed from being confounded. And so the mind of the righteous, though it be free from bad practice, yet sometimes it falls to the ground in bad thinking. Thus then into sin too it slips, because in the thought of the heart at all events it is made to swerve, and yet it hath not that whereon to upbraid itself afterwards in weeping, because it recovers itself before that it falls by consenting. And so with just propriety he who confessed himself a sinner, declares that he is never upbraided by his heart, because though perhaps by thinking unlawful thoughts he ever fell short of righteousness, yet the resolute struggle of the soul, he resisted the thought.
Ishodad of MervAD 850
COMMENTARY ON JOB 27:6
“My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.” Job has no resentment in himself, and his conscience does not reproach him for any shameful act that he might have committed.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Job 27:6 stands as a profound and defiant declaration from Job, asserting his unwavering integrity and the internal peace of an unburdened conscience amidst unimaginable suffering and relentless, unfounded accusations from his friends. In this pivotal statement, Job firmly grasps his perceived blamelessness, refusing to relinquish his moral uprightness or allow his innermost being to condemn him, thereby affirming his conviction before both God and humanity in the face of overwhelming adversity.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 27:6 employs several powerful literary devices to convey Job's resolute stance and profound inner conviction. The most prominent is Hyperbole, as Job declares he will "not let it go" and his heart will not "reproach [me] so long as I live," emphasizing the absolute, unwavering, and lifelong nature of his commitment to his righteousness, even to his dying breath. This is further reinforced by Parallelism in the structure of the verse, where the external declaration of holding fast to righteousness is powerfully mirrored by the internal state of a clear conscience. The phrase "my heart shall not reproach [me]" utilizes Personification, attributing the human action of "reproaching" to Job's heart, which represents his conscience or inner being. This personification vividly portrays the internal struggle and Job's victory over potential self-condemnation. The overall tone is one of Defiance and Assertion, marking a climactic and definitive moment in Job's defense where he stands firm against all external pressures and internal doubts, embodying an unshakeable resolve.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job's declaration in Job 27:6 resonates deeply with the broader biblical understanding of righteousness and the human conscience. His unwavering commitment to his integrity, despite external circumstances that would suggest otherwise, highlights that true righteousness is not merely an outward performance but an internal state, a matter of the heart and inner conviction. The clear conscience Job describes is a profound theological concept, indicating a spirit free from the condemnation of sin, a state that God desires for His people (1 Timothy 1:5). This verse powerfully challenges the simplistic retributive theology often found in the Old Testament (and championed by Job's friends), suggesting that suffering does not always equate to personal sin, and that a righteous individual can indeed suffer without cause. It anticipates New Testament themes of justification by faith and the profound peace that comes from a clear conscience before God, regardless of life's trials or external accusations.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 27:6 offers profound and enduring lessons for believers navigating the complexities of life, particularly when faced with adversity, misunderstanding, and false accusations. Job's steadfast refusal to compromise his integrity, even when his entire world has crumbled and his closest companions accuse him of hidden sin, serves as a powerful model of spiritual resilience and moral fortitude. It underscores the paramount importance of cultivating and maintaining a clear conscience before God, recognizing that true peace and assurance come not from external validation or the absence of suffering, but from an inner conviction of one's blamelessness in God's sight, founded on His truth and one's sincere walk with Him. In a world quick to judge, assign blame, and demand conformity, Job's experience challenges us to examine our own hearts rigorously, ensuring our inner convictions align with divine principles, and to persevere in faith even when our circumstances seem to contradict our understanding of God's justice or when others misinterpret our trials. It reminds us that our ultimate vindication comes from God, not from human approval or the cessation of suffering.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does Job mean by "my righteousness"?
Answer: In this context, "my righteousness" (Hebrew: tsᵉdâqâh) refers to Job's moral uprightness, blamelessness, and integrity in his conduct and character before God and man. It is not a claim of sinless perfection, which no human can achieve, but rather an assertion that he has lived according to God's known standards and has not committed any hidden, unconfessed sin that would warrant the immense suffering he is enduring. This understanding is consistent with God's own assessment of Job at the beginning of the book, where He describes Job as "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil" in Job 1:1 and Job 1:8. Job is affirming his consistent moral character, not his sinless state.
How can Job say his heart will not "reproach" him when he has expressed so much anguish and even questioned God?
Answer: The "reproach" Job refers to in Job 27:6 specifically means internal condemnation for unconfessed sin or secret wickedness that would justify his suffering as divine punishment. While Job certainly expresses profound anguish, lament, and even challenges God's perceived justice and His treatment of him (e.g., Job 10:2-3), these are expressions of his deep suffering, his desperate desire for an explanation from God, and his wrestling with the mystery of his pain, not admissions of hidden guilt. His conscience remains clear regarding the specific accusations of his friends that his suffering is a direct result of his personal wickedness. He is confident that his inner moral compass does not condemn him as a secret sinner, differentiating his honest struggles and questions to God from a guilty conscience that would confirm his friends' theology. This distinction is crucial to understanding the book's central argument about the nature of suffering.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Job's declaration in Job 27:6 powerfully asserts his personal integrity and clear conscience, it ultimately points to a greater, perfect fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Job, a righteous man, suffered unjustly, maintaining a clear conscience in the face of false accusations. Yet, his righteousness, though commendable, was still that of a fallen human being, limited and imperfect. Jesus, however, is the only truly and perfectly righteous one, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who "knew no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He endured unimaginable suffering, not for His own sin, but for ours, bearing the reproach of the world and the Father's wrath on the cross (Isaiah 53:5). Unlike Job, whose conscience was clear but whose suffering remained a profound mystery to him, Jesus willingly embraced suffering as the perfect, atoning sacrifice, fulfilling all righteousness (Matthew 3:15) and providing the ultimate means for humanity to receive a truly clear conscience through His shed blood (Hebrews 9:14). Through faith in Him, believers are clothed with His perfect righteousness (Philippians 3:9) and can stand before God with a conscience cleansed from dead works, no longer reproached by sin, but justified by grace and granted peace with God (Romans 5:1).