Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me as a crown — Job's defiant declaration that he would wear any written indictment against him as a crown rather than a mark of shame amplifies the confidence of verse 35 to the point of audacious boldness. The image of a crown transforms accusation into ornament, legal summons into royal display. This is not arrogance but the extreme form of protestations of innocence: Job has so thoroughly examined his own conduct that he would make his case public, inviting scrutiny rather than fleeing it. The verse functions as the rhetorical peak of the oath of innocence, daring the divine judge to state the charges.

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