The Meaning of Job 9:29 Explained

Job 9:29

KJV: If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?

YLT: I -- I am become wicked; why is this? In vain I labour.

Darby: Be it that I am wicked, why then do I labour in vain?

ASV: I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

[If] I be wicked,  why then labour  I in vain? 

What does Job 9:29 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 9:1-35 - "the Daysman"
Ponder the sublimity of the conceptions of God given in this magnificent passage. To God are attributed the earthquake that rocks the pillars on which the world rests, Job 9:6; the eclipse which hides the heavenly bodies, Job 9:7; the storm in which he bows the heavens and treads majestically on the waves, Job 9:8; and the creation of the constellations, Job 9:9. Who can dare to argue with or call to account so great a God as this? Job 9:10-19. Even if a man be outwardly and inwardly righteous (that is, so far as the measure of his light), yet in such a Presence the heart of the most perfect must condemn him. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves"¦. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." We cannot but feel that this old-world thinker had a truer view of that conscious imperfection and sin which must be experienced by every mortal who has a right appreciation of the holiness of God, than have those who refuse to say the Lord's Prayer because it contains a petition for forgiveness!
Truly we need that Daysman! But we have Him in Jesus our Mediator, who can lay His hand on God and us, Job 9:33; 1 Timothy 2:5. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 9

1  Job acknowledges God's justice
22  Man's innocence is not to be condemned by afflictions

What do the individual words in Job 9:29 mean?

[If] I am condemned why then in vain I labor
אָנֹכִ֥י אֶרְשָׁ֑ע לָמָּה־ זֶּ֝֗ה הֶ֣בֶל ؟ אִיגָֽע

אָנֹכִ֥י  [If]  I 
Parse: Pronoun, first person common singular
Root: אָנׄכִי  
Sense: I (first pers.
אֶרְשָׁ֑ע  am  condemned 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: רָשַׁע  
Sense: to be wicked, act wickedly.
לָמָּה־  why 
Parse: Preposition-l, Interrogative
Root: לָמָּה 
Sense: what, how, of what kind.
הֶ֣בֶל  in  vain 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: הֶבֶל  
Sense: vapour, breath.
؟ אִיגָֽע  I  labor 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: יָגַע  
Sense: to toil, labour, grow weary, be weary.