Job 31:11

For I would have committed ¹  a shameful act, ²  an iniquity to be judged. ³ 

Ge 20:9; Ge 26:10; Ge 38:24; Ge 39:9; Ex 20:14; Le 20:10; De 22:22-24; Job 31:28; Pr 6:29-33; Eze 16:38

¹ tn Heb “for that [would be].” In order to clarify the referent of “that,” which refers to v. 9 rather than v. 10, the words “I have committed” have been supplied in the translation.

² tn The word for “shameful act” is used especially for sexual offenses (cf. Lev 18:27).

³ tc Some have deleted this verse as being short and irrelevant, not to mention problematic. But the difficulties are not insurmountable, and there is no reason to delete it. There is a Kethib-Qere reading in each half verse; in the first the Kethib is masculine for the subject but the Qere is feminine going with “shameless deed.” In the second colon the Kethib is the feminine agreeing with the preceding noun, but the Qere is masculine agreeing with “iniquity.”

tn The expression עָוֹן פְּלִילִים (’avon pÿlilim) means “an iniquity of the judges.” The first word is not spelled as a construct noun, and so this has led some to treat the second word as an adjective (with enclitic mem [ם]). The sense is similar in either case, for the adjective occurs in Job 31:28 meaning “calling for judgment” (See GKC 427 §131.s).