“If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;”
Job expresses that if he is wicked, woe to him, and if righteous, he cannot lift his head, expressing the paradox that seems to obtain regardless of his moral status: he is condemned. The inability to lift his head suggests shame and degradation; yet such shame would be justified only if he were guilty. The paradox reveals that righteousness and guilt yield the same result.
Church Fathers on Job 10:15
If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head: I am full of affliction and misery. Yea, the wicked man has ‘woe,’ and the righteous man ‘affliction,’ in that both everlasting damnation follows the lost sinner, and each one of the Elect is purified by the pains of temporary affliction. The wicked man lifts up his head, yet when so lifted up he cannot escape the woe that pursues him. The righteous man, faring ill with the toils of his…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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