Right, pure, or innocent?

We know that nobody’s perfect. Yet among these imperfect people, some are declared “guilty” and others are declared “not guilty.” Their guilt is regarding a particular offense.

Job’s friends were trying to make sense of his sufferings. They reasoned that since people are not perfect (right/pure), Job must have done something to deserve his sufferings. They assumed that Job was guilty of some great offense. Otherwise, why would bad things happen to good people?

But Job insists that he is innocent. He doesn’t claim that he is perfect. That would be absurd. His claim is that he is innocent of whatever his friends claim that he has done to deserve this tragedy.

So in chapter 25, Job’s friend Bildad speaks up:

“How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?”

So, yes, “Nobody’s perfect.” And Job says “I’m innocent.”

Bad things just happen. They happen to all people.

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