CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Job 13 Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/cambridge/job/131.htm" /><link href='//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cardo&subset=greek-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/job/13.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/job/13-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Cambridge</a> > <a href="../job/">Job</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../job/12.htm" title="Job 12">◄</a> Job 13 <a href="../job/14.htm" title="Job 14">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</div><div class="chap">Ch. <a href="/context/job/13-1.htm" title="See, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it....">Job 13:1-22</a>. Job knows the Divine Wisdom and Might as well as the Friends; their application of these to him is false. He desires to plead his Cause before God<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Having finished his delineation of God’s might and wisdom as they act in the world, Job looks back upon his picture, saying that he knows all this as well as his friends (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-1.htm" title="See, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it....">Job 13:1-2</a></span>); but his calamities receive thereby no solution. In spite of this knowledge he desires to plead his cause before God (<span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-3.htm" title="Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.">Job 13:3</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>And they who sought to use this wisdom and might of God against him, were mere forgers of lies, who gave a false as well as feeble explanation of his troubles (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-4.htm" title="But you are forgers of lies, you are all physicians of no value....">Job 13:4-5</a></span>). They were nothing but partizans for God. And as they had invoked the omniscience of God against him he will threaten them with the judgment of the same God, who will search out their hidden insincerity, and before whom their old maxims will be but “proverbs of ashes” (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-6.htm" title="Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips....">Job 13:6-12</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>With this stinging rebuke to his friends Job turns from them unto God. He will adventure all and go into His presence to plead his cause come what may (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-13.htm" title="Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will....">Job 13:13-15</a></span>). This courage which he feels is token to him that he shall be victorious, for a godless man would not dare to come before God. He knows he shall be found in the right (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-16.htm" title="He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him....">Job 13:16-19</a></span>). Only he will beg for two conditions, That God would remove His hand from him, and, That he would not terrify him by His majesty; then he is ready to answer if God will call, or to speak if God will answer (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-20.htm" title="Only do not two things to me: then will I not hide myself from you....">Job 13:20-22</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-1.htm">Job 13:1</a></div><div class="verse">Lo, mine eye hath seen all <i>this</i>, mine ear hath heard and understood it.</div><span class="bld">1–2</span>. Looking back to his delineation of the Divine wisdom and might as they dominate among men and in the world (ch. <a href="/context/job/12-7.htm" title="But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach you; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell you:...">Job 12:7-25</a>), Job says that his knowledge of them is not inferior to that of the friends—a final answer to Zophar, ch. <a href="/job/11-6.htm" title="And that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.">Job 11:6</a>; cf. as to <span class="ital">Job 13 :</span><a href="/2_chronicles/12-3.htm" title="With twelve hundred chariots, and three score thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.">2 Chronicles 12:3</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="2"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-2.htm">Job 13:2</a></div><div class="verse">What ye know, <i>the same</i> do I know also: I <i>am</i> not inferior unto you.</div><A name="3"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-3.htm">Job 13:3</a></div><div class="verse">Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.</div><span class="bld">3</span>. But this knowledge neither helps nor hinders him. In spite of this knowledge, if not because of it, he desires to reason with God.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">surely I would speak</span>] Rather, <span class="bld">but I would</span> (same word in <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-4.htm" title="But you are forgers of lies, you are all physicians of no value.">Job 13:4</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="4"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-4.htm">Job 13:4</a></div><div class="verse">But ye <i>are</i> forgers of lies, ye <i>are</i> all physicians of no value.</div><span class="bld">4</span>. <span class="ital">but ye are forgers of lies</span>] The <span class="ital">but</span> in <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-3.htm" title="Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.">Job 13:3</a></span> had for its background the knowledge of the Divine wisdom (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-1.htm" title="See, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it....">Job 13:1-2</a></span>); Job knows this well, <span class="ital">but</span> for all his knowledge of it he desires to plead his cause before God, he will speak unto the Almighty. This desire and purpose, however, are crossed by the thought of the use which his friends make of the Divine wisdom against him, and he is diverted from his great object to administer a rebuke to them—<span class="ital">but</span> ye are forgers of lies. <a href="/context/job/13-4.htm" title="But you are forgers of lies, you are all physicians of no value....">Job 13:4-12</a> are therefore a digression, the main object being resumed in <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-13.htm" title="Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.">Job 13:13</a></span>; the digression, however, is profoundly interesting. In clause one Job tells his friends that their assumptions of his guilt and the application which they made to his case of the Divine omniscience are false; in the second he compares them to ignorant physicians, who take in hand a disease which they are incompetent to treat.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="5"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-5.htm">Job 13:5</a></div><div class="verse">O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.</div><span class="bld">5</span>. This verse is suggested by the last clause of the preceding—their impotence to help was such that their silence would be the most helpful thing they could offer. There is a final sarcasm at Zophar’s speech in the reference to “wisdom”; cf. <a href="/proverbs/17-28.htm" title="Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise: and he that shuts his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.">Proverbs 17:28</a>, Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise; and the <span class="ital">si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses</span>, quoted by all the commentators.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="6"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-6.htm">Job 13:6</a></div><div class="verse">Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.</div><span class="bld">6</span>. <span class="ital">hear now my reasoning</span>] Rather, <span class="bld">hear now my rebuke</span>. The reference is not to Job’s cause with God, this is not resumed till <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-13.htm" title="Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.">Job 13:13</a></span>. He utters a formal indictment against his friends which he commands them to hear.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">the pleadings of my lips</span>] i. e. the <span class="ital">reproofs</span> of my lips, their pleadings against you, or their controversy with you, cf. <a href="/deuteronomy/17-8.htm" title="If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates: then shall you arise, and get you up into the place which the LORD your God shall choose;">Deuteronomy 17:8</a>. These reproofs now follow, <span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-7.htm" title="Will you speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?...">Job 13:7-9</a></span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">6–12</span>. Severe rebuke of the three friends, in which (1) they are charged with partiality for God, and with acting the advocate for Him (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-6.htm" title="Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips....">Job 13:6-8</a></span>); and (2) they are threatened with the chastisement of God for their insincerity, and for falsely pleading even in God’s behalf (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-9.htm" title="Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocks another, do you so mock him?...">Job 13:9-12</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="7"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-7.htm">Job 13:7</a></div><div class="verse">Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?</div><span class="bld">7</span>. <span class="ital">speak wickedly</span>] Or, <span class="ital">wrongously</span>, lit. <span class="ital">speak iniquity</span>, ch. <a href="/job/5-16.htm" title="So the poor has hope, and iniquity stops her mouth.">Job 5:16</a>, cf. Zophar’s recommendation to Job, ch. <a href="/job/11-14.htm" title="If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tabernacles.">Job 11:14</a>. <span class="ital">For</span> God means in His behalf, in His defence; and the words <span class="ital">for God</span> are emphatic.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="8"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-8.htm">Job 13:8</a></div><div class="verse">Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?</div><span class="bld">8</span>. The same charge put more explicitly. To accept the person of one is to be partial on his side, cf. <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-10.htm" title="He will surely reprove you, if you do secretly accept persons.">Job 13:10</a></span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">contend for God</span>] i. e. will ye play the advocate for God? The charge made against his friends by Job is that they had no knowledge of his guilt, and merely took part for God against him out of servility to God. This servility was nothing but a superficial religiousness, allied to superstition, which did not form its conception of God from the broad facts of the universe.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="9"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-9.htm">Job 13:9</a></div><div class="verse">Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye <i>so</i> mock him?</div><span class="bld">9</span>. <span class="ital">Is it good</span>] The words may mean, will it be well (for you) that He should search (or, when He shall search)? or as ch. <a href="/job/10-3.htm" title="Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and shine on the counsel of the wicked?">Job 10:3</a>, do you like that He should search you out? The second clause should read,<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Or as one deceiveth a man will ye deceive Him?<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>When God searches you out and looks into the secret springs of your actions do you expect to be able to deceive Him by representations or demeanour or look as one imposes on a man, who cannot “read the mind’s construction in the face”?<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="10"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-10.htm">Job 13:10</a></div><div class="verse">He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.</div><span class="bld">10</span>. God’s rectitude and impartiality are such that He will punish partiality shewn even for Himself—a statement which, when taken along with the imputations which Job has cast on God, shews a singular condition of his mind.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="11"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-11.htm">Job 13:11</a></div><div class="verse">Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?</div><span class="bld">11</span>. <span class="ital">his excellency</span>] His <span class="ital">majesty</span> affright you. They shall be paralyzed when they stand before God who searches the heart.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="12"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-12.htm">Job 13:12</a></div><div class="verse">Your remembrances <i>are</i> like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.</div><span class="bld">12</span>. This verse reads,<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Your remembrances shall be proverbs of ashes,<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Your defences defences of dust.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>The term “remembrances” means their traditional sayings, remembered from antiquity, their maxims, such as Bildad adduced, ch. 8, and Eliphaz with his <span class="ital">Remember now</span>! ch. <a href="/job/4-7.htm" title="Remember, I pray you, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?">Job 4:7</a>; these shall be found to be but ashes, easily dissipated, and not able to resist. The word “defences” is used of the boss of the buckler, ch. <a href="/job/15-26.htm" title="He runs on him, even on his neck, on the thick bosses of his bucklers:">Job 15:26</a>, and may refer to some sort of breastwork or cover from which men assailed the enemy. These shall turn out defences of dust, lit <span class="ital">clay</span>, i. e. dried clay, which crumbles into dust. “Defences” here are not works for defence strictly but for offence, they are the arguments of the friends; cf. <a href="/isaiah/41-21.htm" title="Produce your cause, said the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, said the King of Jacob.">Isaiah 41:21</a>, “strong reasons.” These great arguments which the friends used in defence of God against Job shall be found by them, when God searches them out, to be mere ashes and crumbling clay. So it turned out, cf. ch. <a href="/job/42-7.htm" title="And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends: for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.">Job 42:7</a> <span class="ital">seq</span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="13"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-13.htm">Job 13:13</a></div><div class="verse">Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what <i>will</i>.</div><span class="bld">13</span>. <span class="ital">that I may speak</span>] Emphasis on <span class="ital">I,—that I now</span> may speak. The last clause intimates his resolve to speak at all risks.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">13–22</span>. Job now turns from his friends, whom he commands to be silent, to his great plea with God, resuming the intention expressed in <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-3.htm" title="Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.">Job 13:3</a></span>. The passage has two parts, one preliminary, <span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-13.htm" title="Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will....">Job 13:13-16</a></span>, exhibiting a singular picture of the conflict between resolution and fear in Job’s mind. He will go before God come upon him what will (<span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-13.htm" title="Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.">Job 13:13</a></span>). Yet he cannot hide from himself that it may be at the hazard of his life. Yet he will not be deterred; he will defend his ways to God’s face (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-14.htm" title="Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?...">Job 13:14-15</a></span>). And yet again, this very courage which he has, arising from his sense of innocence, is a token to him that he shall be victorious (<span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-16.htm" title="He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.">Job 13:16</a></span>). The second part, <span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-17.htm" title="Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears....">Job 13:17-22</a></span>. Feeling that the victory is already his he commands his friends to mark his pleading of his cause. He knows he shall be found in the right. Nay, no one will even plead against him (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-17.htm" title="Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears....">Job 13:17-19</a></span>). Only he begs two conditions of God, That He would lift His afflicting hand from him, and, That He would not affright him with His terror (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-20.htm" title="Only do not two things to me: then will I not hide myself from you....">Job 13:20-22</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="14"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-14.htm">Job 13:14</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?</div><span class="bld">14</span>. <span class="ital">Wherefore do I take</span>] Or, <span class="bld">should I take</span>. This and the following verse are surrounded with difficulties. The meaning of the second clause of <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-14.htm" title="Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?">Job 13:14</a></span> is well ascertained from usage, it is: to expose one’s life to jeopardy, <a href="/judges/12-3.htm" title="And when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me?">Jdg 12:3</a>, <a href="/1_samuel/19-5.htm" title="For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel: you saw it, and did rejoice: why then will you sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?">1 Samuel 19:5</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/28-21.htm" title="And the woman came to Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said to him, Behold, your handmaid has obeyed your voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.">1 Samuel 28:21</a>, <a href="/psalms/119-109.htm" title="My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget your law.">Psalm 119:109</a>. The meaning of the first clause is doubtful, as the expression does not occur again. It is held by many that the figure is borrowed from the action of a wild beast, which seizes its prey in its teeth and carries it off to a place of security; in which case the meaning would be, Why should I seek anxiously to preserve my life? If this be assumed to be the meaning the interrogation must end with the first clause, <span class="ital">Why should I take my flesh in my teeth? nay, I will put my life in mine hand</span>. This is not quite satisfactory. Hence an endeavour is made by many to extract a sense from the second clause different from that sanctioned by usage, a sense indeed to appearance the opposite of it, and corresponding to the first clause. It is assumed that the phrase properly means to commit one’s life to his hand to carry it through, to fight one’s way through; in other words, to make strenuous efforts to save one’s life. This is rather a hazardous mode of dealing with language the meaning of which is established by usage. The obscurity of the first clause makes it impossible to be certain of the construction of the verse.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="15"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-15.htm">Job 13:15</a></div><div class="verse">Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.</div><span class="bld">15</span>. The general meaning of <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-14.htm" title="Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?">Job 13:14</a></span> must be the same however the verse is construed, though it may be expressed in two ways, viz. either, Why should I painfully strive to preserve my life? or, I am ready to risk my life (or in both ways). <a href="/job/13-15.htm" title="Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain my own ways before him.">Job 13:15</a> reads most naturally,<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Behold he will slay me: I will not wait:<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Yet will I defend my ways to his face.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>The words “he will slay me” refer to what Job anticipates may be the result of his daring to maintain the rectitude of his life to God’s face, as the second clause intimates. These two clauses are in close connexion, and the words “I will not wait” are almost parenthetical—behold he will slay me (I will not wait for a more distant death), notwithstanding I will defend, &c. Others refer the words “behold he will slay me” to Job’s certainty of speedy death from his disease. And again, some render the words “I will not wait,” <span class="ital">I have no hope</span>; and thus a variety of meanings all more or less suitable arises. The word <span class="ital">to wait</span> hardly has the sense of <span class="ital">to hope</span>, at least in this Book, cf. ch. <a href="/job/6-11.htm" title="What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is my end, that I should prolong my life?">Job 6:11</a>, <a href="/job/14-14.htm" title="If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.">Job 14:14</a>, <a href="/job/29-21.htm" title="To me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.">Job 29:21</a>, <a href="/job/30-26.htm" title="When I looked for good, then evil came to me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.">Job 30:26</a>, and in another form in the mouth of Elihu, ch. <a href="/job/32-11.htm" title="Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst you searched out what to say.">Job 32:11</a>; <a href="/job/32-16.htm" title="When I had waited, (for they spoke not, but stood still, and answered no more;)">Job 32:16</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Instead of the word <span class="ital">not</span> before <span class="ital">wait</span> another reading gives <span class="ital">for him</span>, or <span class="ital">for it</span>. This is the reading of many ancient versions; and the rendering of the Vulgate, <span class="ital">etiamsi occiderit me in ipso sperabo</span>, has been followed by most modern translations, as by our own. Such a sense, however, does not suit the connexion. If this <span class="ital">reading</span> be adopted, some such sense must be given to the clause as that preferred by Delitzsch: Behold he will slay me—I wait for him: only I will defend, &c.; that is, I wait for His final stroke.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="16"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-16.htm">Job 13:16</a></div><div class="verse">He also <i>shall be</i> my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.</div><span class="bld">16</span>. <span class="ital">He also shall be</span>] Rather, <span class="bld">this also</span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">for a hypocrite shall not</span>] Rather, <span class="bld">that a godless man will not</span>; see on ch. <a href="/job/8-13.htm" title="So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:">Job 8:13</a>. A godless man will not dare to go before God; but Job dares and desires; and this courage, sweet evidence to himself of his innocence, he says will be his salvation, that is, will secure him victory in his plea with God. He hardly distinguishes between his own consciousness of innocence and his innocence itself and the proof of it. He is so conscious of it that he is sure it will appear before God, cf. <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-18.htm" title="Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.">Job 13:18</a></span> and the passage ch. <a href="/job/27-8.htm" title="For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul?">Job 27:8</a> foll.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="17"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-17.htm">Job 13:17</a></div><div class="verse">Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.</div><span class="bld">17–22</span>. Assured of victory, he commands his friends to mark his pleading of his cause.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="18"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-18.htm">Job 13:18</a></div><div class="verse">Behold now, I have ordered <i>my</i> cause; I know that I shall be justified.</div><span class="bld">18</span>. <span class="ital">I know that I shall be justified</span>] i. e. be found in the right, ch. <a href="/job/11-2.htm" title="Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?">Job 11:2</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="19"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-19.htm">Job 13:19</a></div><div class="verse">Who <i>is</i> he <i>that</i> will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.</div><span class="bld">19</span>. <span class="ital">Who is he that will plead with me</span>] i. e. plead against me, enter to oppose me with good reasons—who will bring a valid argument against me? The words are a triumphant expression of the feeling that no one will or can, cf. <a href="/isaiah/50-8.htm" title="He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.">Isaiah 50:8</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">for now if I hold my tongue</span>, &c.] Rather, <span class="bld">for then would I hold my peace, and give up the ghost</span>; that is, in case any one should appear against him with proof of his sin. The words form a splendid climax to the declaration of his consciousness of innocence. He is sure he shall be found in the right, nay, none will be found to contend with him; if he thought any one could he would be silent and die.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="20"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-20.htm">Job 13:20</a></div><div class="verse">Only do not two <i>things</i> unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.</div><span class="bld">20, 21</span>. Yet the thought recurs before whom he is to appear and against whom he has to maintain his plea, and he begs God to grant two conditions, cf. ch. <a href="/context/job/9-34.htm" title="Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:...">Job 9:34-35</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="21"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-21.htm">Job 13:21</a></div><div class="verse">Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.</div><A name="22"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-22.htm">Job 13:22</a></div><div class="verse">Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.</div><span class="bld">22</span>. With these conditions he is ready to appear either as respondent or as appellant.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Ch. <a href="/job/13-22.htm" title="Then call you, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer you me.">Job 13:22</a> to <a href="/job/14-22.htm" title="But his flesh on him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.">Job 14:22</a>. Job pleads his cause before God<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Having ordered his cause and challenged his friends to observe how he will plead, Job now enters, with the boldness and proud bearing of one assured of victory, upon his plea itself. There is strictly no break between the passage which follows and the foregoing; the division is only made here for convenience’ sake. It would scarcely be according to the author’s intention to make <span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-23.htm" title="How many are my iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.">Job 13:23</a></span> the plea, and assume that, as God did not answer the demand there made, Job’s plea took another turn. The question whether Job actually did expect that he would be replied to out of heaven can hardly be answered. We must, however, take into account the extreme excitation of his mind, and the vividness with which men in that age realized the nearness of God and looked for His direct interference in their affairs and life. According to the modes of conception which appear everywhere in the Poem, there was nothing extravagant in Job’s expecting a direct reply to his appeal; for that such an answer might be given is evidently the meaning of Zophar’s words, ch. <a href="/job/11-6.htm" title="And that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.">Job 11:6</a>; and in point of fact the Lord does at last answer Job by a voice from heaven, ch. 38. <span class="ital">seq</span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>The plea itself has a certain resemblance to that in chaps. 7 and 10, but is more subdued and calm. The crisis is now really over in Job’s mind. Though he has not convinced his friends, he has fought his way through any doubts which their suspicions and his afflictions might have raised in his own thoughts. The courage with which he is ready to go before God he feels to be but the reflection of his innocence; and this feeling throws a general peace over his spirit, which regrets over the brevity of his life, and perplexity at beholding God treat so severely so feeble a being as himself, are able only partially to disturb. After the few direct demands at the beginning to know what his sins are (<span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-23.htm" title="How many are my iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.">Job 13:23</a></span>), his plea becomes a pitiful appeal unto God, from which the irony of former appeals is wholly absent. As before, he contrasts the littleness of man and the greatness of God, but his conception both of God and man is not any more, so to speak, merely physical, but moral. He speaks of the sins of his youth (ch. <a href="/job/13-26.htm" title="For you write bitter things against me, and make me to possess the iniquities of my youth.">Job 13:26</a>), and of the universal sinfulness of man (ch. <a href="/job/14-4.htm" title="Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.">Job 14:4</a>), and appeals to the forbearance of God in dealing with a creature so imperfect, and shortlived.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>First, Job demands to know what his sins are, and wonders that God who is so great would pursue a withered leaf like him, and bring up now after so long the sins of his youth—one who wastes away like a garment that is moth-eaten (ch. <a href="/context/job/13-23.htm" title="How many are my iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin....">Job 13:23-28</a>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Second, this reference to his own natural feebleness widens his view to the condition of the race of man to which he belongs, whose two characteristics are: that it is of few days, and filled with trouble. And he wonders that God would bring such a being into judgment with <span class="ital">Him</span>; when the race of man is universally imperfect and a clean one cannot be found in it. And he founds an appeal on the fated shortness of man’s life that God would not afflict him with strange and uncommon troubles, but leave him to take what comfort he can, oppressed with only the natural hardships of his short and evil “day” (ch. <a href="/context/job/14-1.htm" title="Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble....">Job 14:1-6</a>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Third, this appeal is supported by the remembrance of the inexorable “nevermore” which death writes on man’s life. Sadder is the fate of man even than that of the tree. The tree if cut down will bud again, but man dieth and is gone without return as wholly as the water which the sun sucks up from the pool; his sleep of death is eternal (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-7.htm" title="Will you speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?...">Job 13:7-12</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Fourth, step after step Job has gone down deeper into the waters of despair—the universal sinfulness of mankind and the inexorable severity of God; the troubles of life of which one must sate himself to the full; its brevity; and last of all its complete extinction in death. The waters here reach his heart; and human nature driven back upon itself becomes prophetic: the vision rises before Job’s mind of another life after this one, and he pursues with excited eagerness the glorious phantom (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-13.htm" title="Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will....">Job 13:13-15</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Finally, the prayer that such another life might be is supported by a new and dark picture which he draws of his present condition (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/13-16.htm" title="He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him....">Job 13:16-22</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="23"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-23.htm">Job 13:23</a></div><div class="verse">How many <i>are</i> mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.</div><span class="bld">23</span>. Job begins his plea with the demand to know the number of his sins—how many iniquities and sins have I?—and in general to be made aware of them. He means what great sins he is guilty of, sins that account for his present afflictions. He does not deny sinfulness, even <span class="ital">sins</span> of his youth (<span class="ital"><a href="/job/13-26.htm" title="For you write bitter things against me, and make me to possess the iniquities of my youth.">Job 13:26</a></span>); what he denies is special sins of such magnitude as to account for his calamities. Job and his friends both agree in the theory that great afflictions are evidence that God holds those whom He afflicts guilty of great offences. The friends believe that Job is guilty of such offences; he knows he is not, and he here demands to know what the sins are of which God holds him guilty.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="24"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-24.htm">Job 13:24</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?</div><span class="bld">24</span>. <span class="ital">Wherefore hidest thou thy face</span>] This does not mean, Wherefore dost thou refuse to answer me <span class="ital">now?</span> the reference is to God’s severity in afflicting him, as is shewn by the words “holdest me for thine enemy,” cf. ch. <a href="/job/19-5.htm" title="If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:">Job 19:5</a>, <a href="/job/35-2.htm" title="Think you this to be right, that you said, My righteousness is more than God's?">Job 35:2</a> <span class="ital">seq</span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="25"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-25.htm">Job 13:25</a></div><div class="verse">Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?</div><span class="bld">25</span>. <span class="ital">Wilt thou break</span>] Or, <span class="bld">Wilt thou affright</span>, that is, chase. The “driven leaf” and the “dry stubble” are figures for that which is so light and unsubstantial that it is the sport of every wind of circumstance. So Job describes himself, in contrast with God, and asks, Is thy determination to assail this kind of foe the explanation of my afflictions?<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="26"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-26.htm">Job 13:26</a></div><div class="verse">For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.</div><span class="bld">26</span>. <span class="ital">for thou writest</span>] Or, <span class="bld">that thou writest</span>. To “write” is to prescribe, or ordain, <a href="/isaiah/10-1.htm" title="Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;">Isaiah 10:1</a>; <a href="/hosea/8-12.htm" title="I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.">Hosea 8:12</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">makest me to possess</span>] Or, <span class="ital">inherit</span>. Job acknowledges sins of his youth, not of his riper manhood, and he conceives that his present afflictions may be for his former sins, which in his past fellowship with God he had deemed long forgiven. It is not to be supposed that he looks back on gross youthful sins, but on such as youth is not free from, and as he feared in his own children, ch. <a href="/job/1-5.htm" title="And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.">Job 1:5</a>. Cf. the prayer of the Psalmist, <a href="/psalms/25-7.htm" title="Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to your mercy remember you me for your goodness' sake, O LORD.">Psalm 25:7</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="27"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-27.htm">Job 13:27</a></div><div class="verse">Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.</div><span class="bld">27</span>. <span class="ital">Thou puttest</span>] Rather, <span class="bld">and puttest my feet in</span> &c. The verse describes his afflictions under three figures, all denoting arrest, impossibility of movement or escape, and chastisement. The first words are brought up by Elihu, ch. <a href="/job/33-11.htm" title="He puts my feet in the stocks, he marks all my paths.">Job 33:11</a>, cf. <a href="/jeremiah/20-2.htm" title="Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.">Jeremiah 20:2</a>; <a href="/acts/16-24.htm" title="Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.">Acts 16:24</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">settest a print upon the heels</span>] Rather, <span class="bld">and drawest thee a line around the soles</span> of my feet. The figure means that God rigidly prescribed his movements, drawing bounds, which he must not overstep, around his feet. He is a prisoner under rigid surveillance.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="28"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/13-28.htm">Job 13:28</a></div><div class="verse">And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.</div><span class="bld">28</span>. <span class="ital">And he as a rotten thing</span>] Or, <span class="bld">one who as a</span> rotten thing. Job no more speaks of himself in the first person, but in the third, because he thinks of himself as one of the human race in general, which is feeble and short-lived.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. Used by Permission. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../job/12.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Job 12"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Job 12" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../job/14.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Job 14"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Job 14" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="rightbox"><div class="padright"><div id="pic"><iframe width="100%" height="860" scrolling="no" src="//biblescan.com/mpc/job/13-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><div id="rightbox4"><div class="padright2"><div id="spons1"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="sp1"><iframe width="122" height="860" scrolling="no" src="/commentaries/ellicott/sidemenu.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></div><div id="bot"><br /><br /><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <br /><br /> </div><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchap.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></body></html>