“Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.”
Job asserts that even if he were righteous, he could not answer God; he would have to plead for mercy, suggesting that even innocence provides no standing before divine power. The distinction between righteousness and mercy reveals that before God, even the righteous are dependent upon unmerited favor. The impossibility of argumentation even from a position of innocence becomes clear.
Church Fathers on Job 9:15
Who, though I possessed any thing righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my Judge. For, as we have often said, all human righteousness is proved unrighteousness, if it be judged by strict rules. And so there is need of prayer following after righteousness, that this, which if sifted to the bottom might be brought down, may be firmly established in the mere pitifulness of the Judge. And when this is possessed fully by the more perfect sort, it is…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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