“And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?”
And if not now, who will prove me a liar and make my word worth nothing, closing chapter 24 with a challenge to anyone to refute Job's catalog of injustice and the divine apparent indifference that permits it. The assertion if not now suggests that if Job's depiction of injustice does not accurately describe reality, the burden of refutation falls on his opponents. The question about who will prove him a liar implies Job's confidence that his observations are empirically accurate and cannot be successfully disputed. This closing line establishes that Job's complaint is grounded in demonstrable reality—the visible injustice that characterizes the world—and that anyone who would defend God must account for this empirical reality.
Church Fathers on Job 24:25
And if it be not so now, who will convict me of having lied, and set my words before God? If it be not so as he tells, then surely all people are able to convict him of falsehood. Why then is it said, And if it be not so now, who will convict me of having lied? i.e. whilst we know that, one who is false, it is allowed anyone to find fault with? But if we sift out the sense of the speaker with exact questioning, how light the things are that he put forth, we speedily…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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