Will you even put me in the wrong? sums up the whole point at issue between God and Job. The question God put to Job in the first line is developed in the second line. The dispute between the two of them centers around the question of justice. By asking this question, which expects the answer “Yes,” God is accusing Job of denying that God is just. In 9.22-24 Job has done just that. This question opens with the same word used in 34.17, meaning “truly?” “really?” and translated as even. Put me in the wrong is literally “break my judgment,” which is equivalent to “make my judgment have no effect.” As Rowley points out, if Job had only defended his own integrity, he would have been in the right, but he has accused God of being unjust and challenged God’s moral right to rule the world.

Will you condemn me that you may be justified?: in the second line condemn translates the same term used in 9.20; 15.6; 32.3. Condemn me is parallel to put me in the wrong. That you may be justified is the opposite of being in the wrong; that is, “so that you may be in the right,” or as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates, “so that you may appear innocent.”

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 .