Job 6:30

Job 6:30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

Ver. 30. Is there iniquity in my tongue?] Yea, or else you shall pass for a perfect man, and well able to bridle the whole body, Jas 3:2. St Paul, Rom 3:13, anatomizing a natural man, standeth more upon the organs of speech, his tongue, lips, mouth, throat, &c., than upon all the other members. But Job was a perfect and an upright man, Job 1:1, he had said he would take heed to his ways, that he sinned not with his tongue, Psa 39:1, he was also convinced of this, that if any man seem to be religious, and bridle not his tongue, that man’s religion was in vain, Jas 1:26. He did not therefore prepensedly and willingly lash out in sinful or superfluous language.

Cannot my taste discern perverse things?] Cannot I distinguish between right and wrong, truth and falsehood? Job 12:11; Job 34:3. Is my mouth so far out of taste? &c. It is a heavy judgment to be given up to an injudicious mind, Rom 1:28, a reprobate sense.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 6:30. Is there iniquity in my tongue? — Consider, if there be any iniquity, or untruth, in what I have already said, or shall further speak? Have I hitherto uttered any thing that is faulty? Cannot my taste discern perverse things — That is, my understanding, which judges of words and actions, as the palate doth of meats. I hope it is not so corrupted but that I can discern what is bad, though spoken by myself.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6:30 Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong? (literally Can’t my palate discern malice?): Job might have been echoing his earlier comment about a tasteless, revolting diet (6:6-7).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Will you say that my guilt lies in the organ of speech, and will you call it to account? or, Is it that my taste (palate) or discernment is not capable to form a judgment of perverse things? Is it thus you will explain the fact of my having no consciousness of guilt? [UMBREIT].

Next: Job Chapter 7

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 30. Is there iniquity in my tongue?] Am I not an honest man? and if in my haste my tongue had uttered falsity, would not my conscience discern it? and do you think that such a man as your friend is would defend what he knew to be wrong?

I HAVE done what I could to make this chapter plain, to preserve the connection, and show the dependence of the several parts on each other; without which many of the sayings would have been very obscure. The whole chapter is an inimitable apology for what he had uttered, and a defence of his conduct. This might have ended the controversy, had not his friends been determined to bring him in guilty. They had prejudged his cause, and assumed a certain position, from which they were determined not to be driven.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(30) Is there iniquity?—Or, injustice in my tongue? Is my taste so perverted that it cannot perceive what is perverse? “Ye appear to think that I am wholly incapable of judging my own cause because it is my own; but if ye will only condescend to return in due course, ye shall find that I know what is right as well as you, and that there is no more vicious reasoning in me than there is with you, and probably less.” It is difficult to draw out the argument of Job in the logical form of our Western thought, and to trace the line of connection running through it. If we look at it in detail—as we must in order to explain it—then we are apt to look at it piecemeal, and miss the thread; but in point of fact it is just this very thread which it is so difficult to detect and retain from one chapter to another.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30. In Job_6:28 Job asseverated that he spoke truth in affirming his innocence. In Job_6:29 he affirmed that he had right on his side in his plea against God, in other words that he was wrongly afflicted. This verse, therefore, can hardly be a new assertion that he speaks the truth when he affirms his innocence; it must refer to a point further back, and be, in the form of a question, an affirmation of his ability to say whether he is innocent or not, and to judge rightly regarding the nature of his afflictions. The question, Is there iniquity in my tongue? means Is my tongue perverted that it cannot distinguish? In the second clause “taste” or “palate” is not referred to as an organ of speech but of perception (ch. Job_12:11).

The expression “perverse things” may mean wickednesses. This may be used generally and the question in the second clause have the same meaning as that in the first, viz. whether Job had lost moral sense and could not distinguish wrong from right? And the whole would be an affirmation of the soundness of his moral judgments, meant to support the asseveration of his innocence and the righteousness of his cause (Job_6:28-29). The phrase “perverse things” is that rendered “calamity” Job_6:2, and this might be the meaning here: “cannot my taste discern calamities?” i. e. the true nature of my afflictions, and perceive that they are undeserved and unjust?

Either of the above meanings forms a fitting and pathetic transition to the renewed cry of despair in ch. 7. For that which makes Job’s condition so crushing to him is that though innocent he feels himself in the hands of a ruthless and arbitrary fate, which, regardless of his innocence, is bent on destroying him. For this fate he has no other name but God; cf. ch. Job_9:22 seq., Job_23:13 seq.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is there iniquity in my tongue? - This is a solemn appeal to their consciences, and their own deep conviction that he was sincere. Iniquity in the tongue means falsehood, deceit, hypocrisy - that which would be expressed by the tongue.

Cannot my taste discern perverse things? - Margin, palate. The word used here חך chêk means properly the palate, together with the corresponding lower part of the mouth, the inside mouth. Gesenius. Hence, it means the organ of taste, residing in the mouth. The meaning is, that Job was qualified to discern what was true or false, sincere or hypocritical, just or unjust, in the same manner as the palate is fitted to discern the qualities of objects, whether bitter or sweet, pleasant or unpleasant, wholesome or unwholesome. His object is to invite attention to what he had to state on the subject. To this proposed vindication he proceeds in the following chapter, showing the greatness of his calamity, and his right, as he supposes, to complain. Their attention was gained. They did not refuse to listen to him, and he proceeds to a fuller statement of his calamity, and of the reasons why he had allowed himself to use the language of complaint. They listened without interruption until he was done, and then replied in tones of deeper severity still.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Mouth. He engages their attention. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "Cannot my taste discern perverse things," (Protestants; Haydock) or "the evil" which I endure? My complaints are not surely unfounded. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Consider again, and more thoroughly examine, if there be any untruth or iniquity in what I have already said, or shall further speak to you.

My taste. i.e. my judgment, which discerns and judgeth of words and actions as the taste or palate doth of meats.

Perverse things, i.e. false opinions or sinful expressions. I am not so bereft of common understanding, as not to be able to distinguish between good and evil; and therefore if I have uttered, or should utter, any perverse words, I should apprehend them to be so as well as you do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

30. Iniquity — Is there wrong in my tongue?

Taste — Cannot my palate discern that which is perverse? Of all human beings he himself knows best about his own heart and life, as one’s own palate is best fitted to discern its own objects of taste. The word palate is here used metaphorically for the moral judgment. It is this that tries “perverse things,” הוות— not “calamities,” as Zockler would read, but a “wickedness which completely contaminates feeling and utterance.” See Psa_52:2, where the same word is used and rendered “mischiefs.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is there iniquity in my tongue? (see ver. 26). Job now justifies his words, which previously he had admitted to have been "rash" (ver. 3). Perhaps he intends to distinguish between rashness and actual wickedness. Cannot my taste discern perverse things? i.e. I see no perversity or wickedness in what I have said. If there were any, I think I should discern it The reasoning is somewhat dangerous, since men are not infallible judges, not being unprejudiced judges, in their own case. Job"s ultimate verdict on himself is that he has "uttered that which he understood (Job_42:3) wherefore he "abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes". (Job_42:6)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is there - Consider if there be any untruth or iniquity in what I have already said, or shall farther speak. Taste - My judgment, which judgeth of words and actions, as the palate doth of meats.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

or will my palate not understand wickedness? Will it not understand when I speak words of wickedness?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.