Verse 6 begins with the Hebrew connective translated “that,” which links verse 6 to verse 5 in a general way. Good News Translation uses “Then why” as a more natural way to make verse 6 a question following verse 5.

That thou dost seek out my iniquity: according to Rowley, it is Job’s view that God has not found him guilty of wrongdoing but is torturing him to make him confess his evil, and thus God wishes to justify himself. The word translated seek is followed by a particle before its object, which denotes an intensive action. The words translated iniquity in line a and sin in line b are parallel. In 14.16-17 the same word pair occurs in essentially the same context. The verb translated search is parallel to seek in line a and has the sense of “investigate” or “inquire into.” Line b and search for my sin in the Hebrew reverses the order of verb-subject found in line a and thus creates a chiasmus, “and for my sin search?”

The question in this verse is: are the sin and iniquity being searched, investigated sins which Job has committed and not confessed, or is God looking to see if he can find some hidden guilt in Job? Good News Translation seems to understand the former, “why do you track down all my sins?” However, in the light of Job’s constant claim of being innocent of wrongdoing, New English Bible and New English Bible take the other view: “that thou lookest for guilt in me and dost seek in me for sin.” In other words Job is protesting that God is keeping his eye on him, trying to find guilt in him. Translators may render verse 6 as a question or as a statement subordinated to verse 5, as in Revised Standard Version. In question form verse 6 may be rendered, for example, “Why do you want to discover sin in me, and investigate me to find evil?”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .