Job 16:17

Not for [any] injustice in mine hands: also my prayer [is] pure.

Ver. 17. Not for any injustice (Heb. Violence or wrong doing) in my hands] Job could wash his hands of that rapine and bribery wherewith they had injuriously charged him, Job 15:34, and safely say of it, as afterwards Father Latimer did of sedition (3 Serm. before K. Edw.), As for that sin, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I might so say. Some failings there might be in him in doing justice, but no intentions of doing injustice.

Also my prayer is pure] As proceeding from a heart washed from wickedness, Jeremiah 4:14, and presented with holy hands, lifted up without wrath or doubting, 1 Timothy 2:8. That he regarded not iniquity in his heart he was well assured, Psalms 66:17. Prayer is the pouring out of the heart; if iniquity be harboured there, prayer will have the scent and savour, and that incense will strike off the hand which offereth it. God requireth that in every place incense be offered unto his name, and a pure offering, Malachi 1:11. It standeth a man in hand to see that though his work be but mean, yet it be clean; though not fine, yet not foul, soiled, and slubbered with the slur of a rotten heart. An upright man in afflictions is not without his cordial, as is to be seen in Job here, and St Paul, 2 Corinthians 1:12 .