Albert Barnes Commentary


Albert Barnes Commentary
"Although thou knowest that I am not wicked, And there is none that can deliver out of thy hand?" — Job 10:7 (ASV)
Thou knowest that I am not wicked - That is, that I am not a hypocrite, or an impenitent sinner. Job did not claim perfection (see the note at Job 9:20), but he maintained through all this argument that he was not a wicked man, in the sense in which his friends regarded him as such, and for the truth of this he could boldly appeal to God. The margin is, “It is upon your knowledge.” This is a literal translation of the Hebrew, but the sense is well expressed in the text. The meaning of the verse is, “Why do you thus afflict me, when you know that I am not wicked? Why am I treated as if I were the worst of men? Why is occasion thus furnished for my friends to construct an argument as if I were a man of singular depravity?”
There is none that can deliver out of thine hand - I have no power to release myself. Job felt that God had almighty power; and he seems to have felt that his sufferings were rather the simple exertion of power, than the exercise of justice. It was this that laid the foundation for his complaint.