What Does Job 9:2 Mean in the King James?

I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?

Job 9:2 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew asks how a mortal can be aligned *with* God, making rightness a relationship, not a self-issued verdict.

THE MEANING

You can know that something is true and still face the question of how a mortal stands rightly with God. The verse leaves that question open: certainty about a matter does not make you the measure of what is right before God.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Being convinced that you are right does not, by itself, establish your rightness with God.

THE ROOT

יִצְדַּק

yitsdaq

GROWS FROM

צדק

ṣ-d-q

alignment; being in the right

“be just” in this verse is yitsdaq. The verb asks how a mortal can be set in right relation with God. The same root names both alignment itself and the person who is aligned, so Job’s question reaches beyond winning an argument to the basis of standing.

ALSO GROWS

tsedeq: alignment; rightness

צֶדֶק

This noun makes visible the state Job is asking about: being in alignment with God.

tsaddiq: an aligned or just person

צַדִּיק

This branch names the person characterized by the very alignment Job asks how a mortal can have with God.

THE PATTERN

Right standing before God is not established by a person’s own claim, but rests on God’s measure and reckoning.

And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Genesis 15:6 · KJVThe same root ⁨צדק⁩ appears as “righteousness,” and the verse presents it as reckoned by God.

And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

Psalm 143:2 · KJVLike Job, the psalm names the limit of any mortal’s claim to be justified in God’s sight.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:20 · KJVThe verse echoes Job’s question by denying that human deeds can establish a claim to right standing before God.

THE THREAD

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Job 25:4 · KJV

Job 25:4 repeats the Hebrew verb ⁨יִצְדַּק⁩ (yitsdaq, be aligned or justified), bringing the same question into sharper focus. The echo shows that the issue is not a single verdict but how a mortal can stand in right relation with God.

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