Albert Barnes Commentary Job 34:6

"Notwithstanding my right I am [accounted] a liar; My wound is incurable, [though I am] without transgression." — Job 34:6 (ASV)

Should I lie against my right? - These are also quoted as the words of Job, and as a part of the erroneous opinions on which Elihu proposes to comment. These words do not occur, however, as used by Job respecting himself, and Elihu must be understood to refer to what he regarded as the general strain of the argument he maintained. Regarding the meaning of the words, there have been various opinions. Jerome renders them, “For in judging me there is falsehood - mendacium est; my violent arrow (the painful arrow in me) is without any sin.” The Septuagint translates, “He the Lord has been false in my accusation” - ἐψένσατο δὲ τῷ κρίματί μου - epseusato de tō krimati mou - “my arrow is heavy without transgression.” Coverdale states, “I must indeed be a liar, though my cause is right.” Umbreit renders it, “I must lie if I should acknowledge myself to be guilty.”

Noyes: “Though I am innocent, I am made a liar.” Prof. Lee: “Should I lie respecting my case? My arrow is mortal without transgression.” That is, Job said he could not lie about it; he could use no language that would deceive. He felt that a mortal arrow had reached him without transgression, or without any adequate cause.

Rosenmuller renders it, “However just my cause may be, I appear to be a liar.” That is, he was regarded as guilty and treated accordingly, however conscious he might be of innocence, and however strenuously he might maintain that he was not guilty.

The meaning is probably this: “I am held to be a liar. I defend myself, go over my past life, state my course of conduct, and meet the accusations of my friends, but in all this I am still held to be a liar. My friends regard me this way—for they will not credit my statements, and they continue to argue as if I were the most guilty of mortals.”

And God also, in this, holds me to be a liar, for he treats me constantly as if I were guilty. He does not hear my vindication, and he inflicts pain and woe upon me as if all that I had said about my own integrity were false, and I were one of the most abandoned of mortals, so that on all sides I am regarded and treated as if I were basely false.” The literal translation of the Hebrew is, “Concerning my judgment (or my cause) I am held to be a liar.”

My wound is incurable - Margin, as in Hebrew, “arrow.” The idea is that a deadly arrow had struck him, which could not be extracted. So in Virgil:

Haeret lateri letalis arundo. Aeneid iv. 73.

The image is taken from an animal that had been pierced with a deadly arrow.

Without transgression - Without any sin that deserved such treatment. Job did not claim to be absolutely perfect; he maintained only that the sufferings he endured were no proper proof of his character .