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How should the sons of Adam's race God holy, just, and sovereign. Job 9. 2-10

Isaac Watts printed it in 1707 in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I, no. 86, under Job 9:2–10.

WRITTEN BY

Isaac Watts 1674–1748

PRINTED

1707 Hymns and Spiritual Songs · no. 86

METRE

Common Metre 8.6.8.6 · 6 stanzas

WRITTEN ON

Job 9:2–10 the verse printed above it

The hymn, and the Scripture in it

All 6 stanzas as Watts printed them, with the verses their lines echo beside them. Point at a line to join it to its verse; click to read the passage.

SHARED WORDSthe verse shares the line's wording ECHOproposed by an AI model, confirmed by a separate check Not the author's own notes

AMONG THE SCRIPTURES

The stanzas at the centre; around them, every book its heading and its echoes come from, Old Testament on the left and New on the right. Choose a stanza or a book.

a line echoes this verse its heading or an echo comes from here

STANZA I

How should the sons of Adam's race

Be pure before their God?

If he contend in righteousness

We fall beneath his rod.

No line of this stanza quotes a verse closely; it is the hymn's own confession.

Where Watts found it

Watts printed the hymn under Job 9:2–10. The line that comes closest to it is marked.

2“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God? 3If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. 4God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered? 5He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger. 6He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble. 7He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars. 8He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 9He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. 10He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number. JOB 9:2–10 · BEREAN STANDARD BIBLE READ JOB 9

Strong is his arm, his heart is wise; What vain presumers dare Against their Maker's hand to rise, Or tempt th' unequal war? STANZA III

Its place in the book

Book I of the hymn book, “Collected from the Holy Scriptures”, holds these hymns in this order: 179 hymns. This is number 86. Point at a tick to see the hymn; click it to open that hymn.

NO. 86 · ISAAC WATTS · THIS HYMN How should the sons of Adam's race

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