Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
Job's friends have been charging him with serious wrong, and he answers with something close to an oath: he will keep his integrity until he dies. Is this the courage of an honest man, or the self-defence of a man who has not yet seen himself as God sees him?
The moment in the argument
Job turns the charge back on the men who made it, and he says it with the force of an oath.
William KellyHe still holds to it that all their imagination was false. He said now more solemnly than ever — it was like taking an oath — as God lives, this is true. "God forbid that I should justify you." Now he turns on them; he says, "You are the culprits, not I." "Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live." They were, on the contrary, charging him with what was very bad in most of their speeches.
What "justify" means here
The ESV reads, "Far be it from me to say that you are right." Older translations read "justify you," and the commentators work from that older word. One writer sets Job's use of it beside God's own use.
The Bible TreasuryThe word translated "justify" occurs in that precise form of the verb only in Exodus 23:7: "I will not acquit the wicked"; that is, God will not make or declare a wicked man a just man. Again, "God forbid that I should justify you" (Job 27:5); that is, acknowledge you to be just in what you have spoken.
Older translations read "I will not justify the wicked" in Exodus 23:7 — the same word again. So Job is not claiming sinlessness here. He is refusing to sign off on his friends' reading of his life.
Holding fast to a clear conscience
Job will not confess to a wrong he did not do. One writer sets his stand beside Paul, who also kept a good conscience.
W. H. WestcottWhatever the three friends allege, he will not admit a false charge (v. 5). Despite their harsh judgment, he is determined to pursue the integrity of all his former life to the day of his death. In this setting he says, "My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." That is, nothing could turn him to turn from what he knew to be right. He therefore adds, "My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live." He was for keeping a good conscience all his days, like Paul later.
God had used the word first
God Himself calls Job blameless and says he holds fast his integrity — the very thing Job clings to here. He also defends His servant against every accuser.
An Outline of Sound WordsHe points out their failures faithfully. He records the details that men would have hidden. But He will not allow others to speak against them. If a Balaam would curse them, he must bless instead. If Satan would harm Job, God would speak of him as "my servant Job — none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil; and he still holds fast his integrity."
Honest — but not yet in the light
Commentators differ on Job's tone. One writer grants Job's honesty but still hears self-righteousness in these words.
Samuel RidoutHe will not allow himself to bear false witness; till he dies he will hold fast his integrity. His heart does not condemn him. Looking back over his past life, there is not a day whose record gives ground for reproach... But there is a sound of self-righteousness that does not fit with knowing yourself in the presence of God. Job is not there yet. It is the cry of an honest soul that does not yet fully see the light. Is there any unrighteousness? — it is in his enemy, not in himself. We see, then, that Job was speaking as between man and man.
What his righteousness had to become
One writer looks ahead to what Job's righteousness had to become.
W. H. WestcottHe would by no means surrender his integrity, he would by no means let go his righteousness. But, as Elihu puts it, his "righteousness," or his "uprightness," would now be to bow under God's hand, to trust the searching of His discipline, and to learn the lesson God would teach. In short, it would be to look away from himself to God, and to live on that new principle before Him, centred in the Lord and no longer in self.
Summary
- Integrity given. God named Job's integrity before Job ever defended it, and would not let others speak against His servant.
- Integrity defended. To "justify" his friends would mean calling them right. Job refuses that. He is not claiming to be sinless.
- Integrity as conscience. He will not confess a crime he did not commit; he means to keep a clear conscience to his dying day.
- Integrity misplaced. The same words carry a note of self-righteousness: he is arguing man to man, not yet standing in the light of God.
- Integrity relocated. He never has to let his integrity go. He must hold it in a new way — bowing under God's hand, centred in God and not in himself.