“Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.”
Job declares that he is blameless, yet he does not know himself, and he despises his own life, expressing the internal contradiction that arises from his conviction of innocence coupled with his experience of suffering. The phrase 'I do not know myself' suggests that suffering has made him a stranger to himself. The despising of his own life reveals the depth of alienation from self.
Church Fathers on Job 9:21
Though I were perfect, even this my soul shall not know. Most commonly if we know the good things that we do, we are led to entertain pride; if we are ignorant of them, we cannot keep them. For who would not, in however slight degree, be rendered proud by the consciousness of his virtue? or who, again, would keep safe within him that good, which he does not know of? what then remains as a provision against either of these evils, saving that all the good things that we do, in…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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