The Meaning of Job 16:17 Explained

Job 16:17

KJV: Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

YLT: Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.

Darby: Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

ASV: Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Not for [any] injustice  in mine hands:  also my prayer  [is] pure. 

What does Job 16:17 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 16:1-22 - Turning From "miserable Comforters" Unto God
With bitterness the sufferer turns from his comforters to God. As the r.v. makes clear, he says that if he were in their place and they in his, instead of joining words together and evincing the pride of the immaculate, he would set himself to speak strengthening words and to assuage their grief by tender sympathy.
He compares his pains to the attack of a wild beast, Job 16:7-14; and from this he proceeds to describe the anguish of his grief, Job 16:15-20. But toward the end of the chapter a new thought begins to shape itself; and from his lowest despair he catches sight of a Vindicator and a vindication that must someday be his. Job 16:21 should be read as in the r.v., margin. Job wanted a son of man to plead for him; and his prayer has been more than answered in the Son of man, who pleads for us "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an indissoluble life," Hebrews 7:16. "O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul," Lamentations 3:58. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 16

1  Job reproves his friends for unmercifulness
17  He maintains his innocence

What do the individual words in Job 16:17 mean?

Although no violence [is] in my hands and my prayer [is] pure
עַ֭ל לֹא־ חָמָ֣ס בְּכַפָּ֑י וּֽתְפִלָּתִ֥י זַכָּֽה

עַ֭ל  Although 
Parse: Preposition
Root: עַל 
Sense: upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against.
לֹא־  no 
Parse: Adverb, Negative particle
Root: הֲלֹא 
Sense: not, no.
חָמָ֣ס  violence  [is] 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: חָמָס  
Sense: violence, wrong, cruelty, injustice.
בְּכַפָּ֑י  in  my  hands 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, fdc, first person common singular
Root: כַּף  
Sense: palm, hand, sole, palm of the hand, hollow or flat of the hand.
וּֽתְפִלָּתִ֥י  and  my  prayer  [is] 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, feminine singular construct, first person common singular
Root: תְּפִלָּה  
Sense: prayer.
זַכָּֽה  pure 
Parse: Adjective, feminine singular
Root: זַךְ  
Sense: clean, pure.