there is or are (or any other form of the verb to be · interrogative particle + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
iniquity
עַוְלָ֑ה'av.Lah
H5766
(moral) evil · noun, common feminine singular absolute
tongue
בִּלְשׁוֹנִ֥יbil.sho.Ni
H3956
the tongue (of man or animals) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
taste
חִ֝כִּ֗יchi.Ki
H2441
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
discern
יָבִ֥יןya.Vin
H995
to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
things
הַוּֽוֹתha.Vot
H1942
by implication · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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 12:11 Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
Job 6:6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
Job 34:3 For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.
Job 33:8-12 Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying,
Job 42:3-6 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew n…
Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and…
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…
Will you say that my guilt lies in the organ of speech, and will you call it to account? or, Is it that my taste (palate) or discernment is not capable to form a judgment of perverse things? Is it thus you will explain the fact of my having no consciousness of guilt? [UMBREIT].
Next: Job Chapter 7
John Gill on Job 6:30
Is there iniquity in my tongue?.... Meaning in his words; either those which he uttered when he cursed the day on which he was born, or in charging his friends with unkindness and falsehood; otherwise the tongue is a world of iniquity, and the best of men are apt to offend both God and men in word:
cannot my taste discern perverse things? which is to be understood not of his natural taste, which very probably through his disease might be greatly vitiated, and incapable of relishing his food as in time of health, and of distinguishing good from bad; but of his intellectual taste, or of his sense and reason, his rational and spiritual taste; he had his senses exercised to discern good and evi…
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
"For iniquity is not on my lips, and has not my heart meditated wisdom? He has not accused God, he says, but he has made a man speak who accuses himself, as he has already made us understand in his other words. This is how he meditated wisdom.
And ye shall not find iniquity in my tongue, nor shall foolishness sound through my jaws. As if it were expressed in plain words, 'The more exactly ye weigh your own words, the more truly ye estimate those of others, and when what ye say begins to be right, ye will recognise what ye hear to be just. For my tongue never sounds of folly to you, unless it be what comes from your own inward thoughts.' Thus Holy Church makes it her aim first to prove the allegations of her enemies to be false, and then to make known the announcements of the truth, for so long as they reckon themselves to hold right notions, they obstinately assail the right things that they hear. Therefore it is necessary beforehand that heretics should feel their error, lest they gainsay the truth when it is heard. For neither if the tiller of the soil neglect to root up the briars of the field by the cutting of the share, will the earth bring to a crop the seed received into her bosom; and 'when the physician does not get rid of the corruption, by opening the wound, healthy flesh never forms in the corrupt spot. First then in destroying what is bad, let him say, And speaking that which is just, judge ye; but afterwards in teaching what is right, let him add, And ye shalt not find iniquity in my tongue, nor shall foolishness sound through my jaws. Now it is the way with heretics to deliver some things openly, to hold others in secret, for by the 'tongue,' plain speaking is denoted, but by the 'jaws,' the secret harbouring. Neither in the tongue then of Holy Church does 'iniquity resound,' nor 'foolishness in her jaws,' for the things that she proclaims in open utterance, at the same time she preserves in inward faith; nor does she teach one thing in public and keep another to herself in secret; but she both delivers what she thinks by giving utterance to it, and keeps what she delivers by living accordingly; and whatever is let out belonging to the feast of heavenly wisdom by the tongue of preaching, she tastes this same by the jaws of silent expectation. And let blessed Job, both as an individual member of the whole Church, in telling his own case, and as shewing what is the heart of all of the Elect, make known all that he feels, that the testimony of his speech may manifest the uprightness of his mind.
Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong? (literally Can’t my palate discern malice?): Job might have been echoing his earlier comment about a tasteless, revolting diet (6:6-7).
Rashi on Job 6:30
or will my palate not understand wickedness? Will it not understand when I speak words of wickedness?