(14) If I sin . . .--"If I had sinned Thou wouldst have marked me for punishment, and from mine iniquity Thou wouldst not acquit me. If I had been guilty, woe unto me 1 and if righteous, I must not lift up my head like an innocent person. I am full of shame, therefore behold Thou mine affliction, for only by Thy taking note of it can I find relief."

Verse 14. - If I sin, then thou markest me; rather, if I sinned then thou didst observe me. Thou tookest note of all my sins as I committed them, and laidest them up in thy memory. And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. This record of my offences thou still hast against me, and I cannot expect that thou wilt acquit me of them. Without some one to atone for them, men cannot be acquitted of their offences.

10:14-22 Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his sufferings; but he thought that justice was executed upon him with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of God, were as much to be ascribed to Satan's inward temptations, and his anguish of soul, under the sense of God's displeasure, as to his outward trials, and remaining depravity. Our Creator, become in Christ our Redeemer also, will not destroy the work of his hands in any humble believer; but will renew him unto holiness, that he may enjoy eternal life. If anguish on earth renders the grave a desirable refuge, what will be their condition who are condemned to the blackness of darkness for ever? Let every sinner seek deliverance from that dreadful state, and every believer be thankful to Jesus, who delivereth from the wrath to come.If I sin, then thou markest me,.... Or "observest me" (t); that is, he took notice of his sins, strictly inquired into them and all the circumstances of them, watched the motions and progress of them, and carefully laid them up, in order to bring them out against him another day, and afflict or punish him for them; or he set a watch about him, "kept him in" (u), and enclosed him on every side with affliction, as if he was in a watch or prison, as Gersom; or, "wilt thou keep me" (w)? that is, in such close confinement: Gussetius (x) renders it, "if I have offered a sacrifice for sin", as the word is sometimes used; signifying, that though he should, as no doubt he did, offer sacrifice for himself, as it is certain he did for his children, yet even that was not regarded by the Lord; he still marked and observed him and his sins, and would not forgive him, or absolve him from his sins, as follows; see Job 7:12,

and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity; clear him of it, and discharge him from it; pronounce him innocent, or pardon him; but, on the contrary, hold him guilty, and deal with him as such in a rigorous way; or wilt not "cleanse" or purify me, as the Targum and others (y), but let me continue, or treat me as an impure person, not fit for communion or converse.

(t) "observasti me", Beza, Mercerus; "tum observas me", Schmidt. (u) "Custodisti me", Drusius. (w) "Custodies me", Vatablus. (x) Ebr. Comment. p. 923. (y) "mundabis", Mercerus; "mundes", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius; "purges me", Junius & Tremellius.