Job 22:5

5 Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?

Job 22:5 in Other Translations

KJV
5 Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
ESV
5 Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.
NLT
5 No, it’s because of your wickedness! There’s no limit to your sins.
MSG
5 Hardly! It's because you're a first-class moral failure, because there's no end to your sins.
CSB
5 Isn't your wickedness abundant and aren't your iniquities endless?

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 What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?
4 “Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you?
5 Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?
6 You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
7 You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry,

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Ezra 9:13; S Job 15:5">Job Job 15:5; Job 11:6; Job 15:5
  • 2. S Job 15:13; S Job 20:29; Job 29:17
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