What Does Job 9:28 Mean in the King James?

I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.
Job 9:28 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

The deepest fear here is not pain itself, but the certainty that pain will not clear the sufferer before God.

The verse speaks from inside the fear that suffering does not change the verdict: you feel sorrow and still expect not to be cleared. Pain and innocence remain separate questions in the sentence.

תְנַקֵּנִי

tenaqqēnî

GROWS FROM

נקה

nāqāh

To be clean; to clear or acquit someone.

The verb behind “hold me innocent” is the language of being cleared of liability. Job fears that his sorrow does not settle whether he will be cleared; pain and acquittal remain distinct.

ALSO GROWS

nāqî: Clean, innocent, free of guilt.

נָקִי

This adjective shows how the same root describes the person as clear, the state Job fears he will not be granted.

niqqāyôn: Cleanness, innocence.

נִקָּיוֹן

This noun makes the shared idea explicit: being cleared is a condition of innocence, not simply a label.

When a speaker expects God to mark wrongdoing, the question becomes who can stand or be cleared.

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Psalm 130:3 · KJVThe question echoes Job’s fear that divine scrutiny leaves no one able to stand.
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 likewise turns the prospect of judgment into the question of who can be cleared before God.
If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
Job 10:14 · KJV

The same verb ⁨נקה⁩ (nāqāh), meaning to clear or acquit, appears in “thou wilt not acquit me.” Job 10:14 states the fear more explicitly: being marked for wrongdoing and not cleared.

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Job 9:28 KJV Meaning