to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
iniquity
עַוְלָ֑ה'av.Lah
H5766
(moral) evil · noun, common feminine singular absolute
again
וְשׁ֥וּבוּve.shu.vi
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
righteousness
צִדְקִיtzid.ki-
H6664
the right (natural · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 27:4-6 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Malachi 3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 6:22–end
Poor Job goes on here to upbraid his friends with their unkindness and the hard usage they gave him. He here appeals to themselves concerning several things which tended both to justify him and to condemn them. If they would but think impartially, and speak as they thought, they could not but own,
I. That, though he was necessitous, yet he was not craving, nor burdensome to his friends. Those that are so, whose troubles serve them to beg by, are commonly less pitied than the silent poor. Job would be glad to see his friends, but he did not say, Bring unto me (Job 6:22), or, Deliver me, Job 6:23. He did not desire to put them to any expense, did not urge his friends either, 1. To make a colle…
Return--rather, "retract" your charges:
let it not be iniquity--that is, (retract) that injustice may not be done me. Yea retract, "my righteousness is in it"; that is, my right is involved in this matter.
John Gill on Job 6:29
Return, I pray you,.... From the ill opinion you have of me, and from your hard censures, and entertain other sentiments concerning me: or it may be, upon these words of Job his friends might be rising up as usual to take their leave of him, and break off conversation with him; and therefore he entreats they would return to their seats, and resume the debate, and give a friendly hearing of his case:
let it not be iniquity; either let it not be reckoned an iniquity to return and go on hearing his case; or he entreats that they would take care not to sin in their anger and resentment against him, nor go on to charge him with iniquity: or it may be rendered, "there is no iniquity" (h); that is…
28 And now be pleased to observe me keenly,
I will not indeed deceive you to your face.
29 Try it again, then: let there be no injustice;
Try it again, my righteousness still stands.
30 Is there wrong on my tongue?
Or shall not my palate discern iniquity?
He begs them to observe him more closely; בּ פּנה, as Ecc 2:11, to observe scrutinizingly. אם is the sign of negative asseveration (Ges. 155, 2, f). He will not indeed shamelessly give them the lie, viz., in respect to the greatness and inexplicableness of his suffering. The challenging שׁוּבוּ we do not translate: retrace your steps, but: begin afresh, to which both the following clauses are better suited. So Schlottm. and von Gerlach. Hah…
The Church Fathers
"And now look for justice. It had at first seemed to them that the right made them speak
While convincing his friends that they are not acting friendly but speaking against common sense, Job now tries to show that he cannot appropriately be accused of speaking harshly or of desiring death by just judges. "And judge by saying what is just." Be judges of the words that we said in common, so that your judgment may be in compliance with justice and not with a feeling of hostility.
Answer, I pray you, without strife. For neither do heretics try to attain truth by their investigations, but to appear to be the winners; and whereas they desire to shew for wise without, they are bound within in their foolishness with the chains of their own pride; hence it comes to pass that they look out for contests of rivalry, and concerning God, Who is our Peace, they know not how to speak with peaceableness, and by the article of peace they become contrivers of strife. To whom it is well spoken by Paul, But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Churches of God. Now it is rightly added, And speaking that which is just, judge ye. For everyone that speaks, whilst he waits for his hearer's sentence upon his words, is as it were subjected to the judgment of him, by whom he is heard. Accordingly he that fears to be condemned in respect of his words, ought first to put to the test that which he delivers; that there may be a kind of impartial and sober umpire sitting between the heart and the tongue, weighing with exactness whether the heart presents right words, which the tongue taking up with advantage may bring forward for the hearer's judgment. Therefore let blessed Job, while managing his own case against his friends, yet telling our proceedings against heretics, blame precipitancy in speakers, and gather words to suit their mind, saying, And speaking that which is just, judge ye. As if it were in plain words, 'If in this, that ye come out to us in the issuing forth of the tongue, ye would not be found fault with, retain within the balances of justice, that what is delivered without, may find acceptance by the weightiness of truth, the more in proportion as the scales of discretion weigh it well within, and because those put forth a right judgment about the sayings of others, who are used first to sit in judgment on their own...
even send an orphan into slavery: Job, the former protector of orphans (31:17, 21), used a proverbial example of his counselors’ hard-heartedness toward the defenseless (see 17:5).
Rashi on Job 6:29
Return now to test, and you will determine that there shall be no more injustice; return to investigate, and behold, my righteousness will be found in it.