1 Lo, mine eye H5869 hath seen H7200 all this, mine ear H241 hath heard H8085 and understood H995 it.
2 What ye know, H1847 the same do I know H3045 also: I am not inferior H5307 unto you.
3 Surely H199 I would speak H1696 to the Almighty, H7706 and I desire H2654 to reason H3198 with God. H410
4 But H199 ye are forgers H2950 of lies, H8267 ye are all physicians H7495 of no value. H457
5 O that H5414 ye would altogether H2790 hold your peace! H2790 and it should be your wisdom. H2451
6 Hear H8085 now my reasoning, H8433 and hearken H7181 to the pleadings H7379 of my lips. H8193
7 Will ye speak H1696 wickedly H5766 for God? H410 and talk H1696 deceitfully H7423 for him?
8 Will ye accept H5375 his person? H6440 will ye contend H7378 for God? H410
9 Is it good H2895 that he should search you out? H2713 or as one man H582 mocketh H2048 another, do ye so mock H2048 him?
10 He will surely H3198 reprove H3198 you, if ye do secretly H5643 accept H5375 persons. H6440
11 Shall not his excellency H7613 make you afraid? H1204 and his dread H6343 fall H5307 upon you?
12 Your remembrances H2146 are like H4912 unto ashes, H665 your bodies H1354 to bodies H1354 of clay. H2563
13 Hold your peace, H2790 let me alone, that I may speak, H1696 and let come H5674 on me what will.
14 Wherefore do I take H5375 my flesh H1320 in my teeth, H8127 and put H7760 my life H5315 in mine hand? H3709
15 Though H2005 he slay H6991 me, yet will I trust H3176 in him: but I will maintain H3198 mine own ways H1870 before H6440 him.
16 He also shall be my salvation: H3444 for an hypocrite H2611 shall not come H935 before H6440 him.
17 Hear H8085 diligently H8085 my speech, H4405 and my declaration H262 with your ears. H241
18 Behold now, I have ordered H6186 my cause; H4941 I know H3045 that I shall be justified. H6663
19 Who is he that will plead H7378 with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, H2790 I shall give up the ghost. H1478
20 Only do H6213 not two H8147 things unto me: then will I not hide H5641 myself from thee. H6440
21 Withdraw H7368 thine hand H3709 far H7368 from me: and let not thy dread H367 make me afraid. H1204
22 Then call H7121 thou, and I will answer: H6030 or let me speak, H1696 and answer H7725 thou me.
23 How many are mine iniquities H5771 and sins? H2403 make me to know H3045 my transgression H6588 and my sin. H2403
24 Wherefore hidest H5641 thou thy face, H6440 and holdest H2803 me for thine enemy? H341
25 Wilt thou break H6206 a leaf H5929 driven to and fro? H5086 and wilt thou pursue H7291 the dry H3002 stubble? H7179
26 For thou writest H3789 bitter things H4846 against me, and makest me to possess H3423 the iniquities H5771 of my youth. H5271
27 Thou puttest H7760 my feet H7272 also in the stocks, H5465 and lookest narrowly H8104 unto all my paths; H734 thou settest a print H2707 upon the heels H8328 of my feet. H7272
28 And he, as a rotten thing, H7538 consumeth, H1086 as a garment H899 that is moth H6211 eaten. H398
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 13
Commentary on Job 13 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 13
Job 13:1-28. Job's Reply to Zophar Continued.
1. all this—as to the dealings of Providence (Job 12:3).
3. Job wishes to plead his cause before God (Job 9:34, 35), as he is more and more convinced of the valueless character of his would-be "physicians" (Job 16:2).
4. forgers of lies—literally, "artful twisters of vain speeches" [Umbreit].
5. (Pr 17:28). The Arabs say, "The wise are dumb; silence is wisdom."
7. deceitfully—use fallacies to vindicate God in His dealings; as if the end justified the means. Their "deceitfulness" for God, against Job, was that they asserted he was a sinner, because he was a sufferer.
8. accept his person—God's; that is, be partial for Him, as when a judge favors one party in a trial, because of personal considerations.
contend for God—namely, with fallacies and prepossessions against Job before judgment (Jud 6:31). Partiality can never please the impartial God, nor the goodness of the cause excuse the unfairness of the arguments.
9. Will the issue to you be good, when He searches out you and your arguments? Will you be regarded by Him as pure and disinterested?
mock—(Ga 6:7). Rather, "Can you deceive Him as one man?" &c.
10. If ye do, though secretly, act partially. (See on Job 13:8; Ps 82:1, 2). God can successfully vindicate His acts, and needs no fallacious argument of man.
11. make you afraid?—namely, of employing sophisms in His name (Jer 10:7, 10).
12. remembrances—"proverbial maxims," so called because well remembered.
like unto ashes—or, "parables of ashes"; the image of lightness and nothingness (Isa 44:20).
bodies—rather, "entrenchments"; those of clay, as opposed to those of stone, are easy to be destroyed; so the proverbs, behind which they entrench themselves, will not shelter them when God shall appear to reprove them for their injustice to Job.
13. Job would wish to be spared their speeches, so as to speak out all his mind as to his wretchedness (Job 13:14), happen what will.
14. A proverb for, "Why should I anxiously desire to save my life?" [Eichorn]. The image in the first clause is that of a wild beast, which in order to preserve his prey, carries it in his teeth. That in the second refers to men who hold in the hand what they want to keep secure.
15. in him—So the margin or keri, reads. But the textual reading or chetib is "not," which agrees best with the context, and other passages wherein he says he has no hope (Job 6:11; 7:21; 10:20; 19:10). "Though He slay me, and I dare no more hope, yet I will maintain," &c., that is, "I desire to vindicate myself before Him," as not a hypocrite [Umbreit and Noyes].
16. He—rather, "This also already speaks in my behalf (literally, 'for my saving acquittal') for an hypocrite would not wish to come before Him" (as I do) [Umbreit]. (See last clause of Job 13:15).
17. my declaration—namely, that I wish to be permitted to justify myself immediately before God.
with your ears—that is, attentively.
18. ordered—implying a constant preparation for defense in his confidence of innocence.
19. if, &c.—Rather, "Then would I hold my tongue and give up the ghost"; that is, if any one can contend with me and prove me false, I have no more to say. "I will be silent and die." Like our "I would stake my life on it" [Umbreit].
20. Address to God.
not hide—stand forth boldly to maintain my cause.
21. (See on Job 9:34 and see Ps 39:10).
22. call—a challenge to the defendant to answer to the charges.
answer—the defense begun.
speak—as plaintiff.
answer—to the plea of the plaintiff. Expressions from a trial.
23. The catalogue of my sins ought to be great, to judge from the severity with which God ever anew crushes one already bowed down. Would that He would reckon them up! He then would see how much my calamities outnumber them.
sin?—singular, "I am unconscious of a single particular sin, much less many" [Umbreit].
24. hidest … face—a figure from the gloomy impression caused by the sudden clouding over of the sun.
enemy—God treated Job as an enemy who must be robbed of power by ceaseless sufferings (Job 7:17, 21).
25. (Le 26:36; Ps 1:4). Job compares himself to a leaf already fallen, which the storm still chases hither and thither.
break—literally, "shake with (Thy) terrors." Jesus Christ does not "break the bruised reed" (Isa 42:3, 27:8).
26. writest—a judicial phrase, to note down the determined punishment. The sentence of the condemned used to be written down (Isa 10:1; Jer 22:30; Ps 149:9) [Umbreit].
bitter things—bitter punishments.
makest me to possess—or "inherit." In old age he receives possession of the inheritance of sin thoughtlessly acquired in youth. "To inherit sins" is to inherit the punishments inseparably connected with them in Hebrew ideas (Ps 25:7).
27. stocks—in which the prisoner's feet were made fast until the time of execution (Jer 20:2).
lookest narrowly—as an overseer would watch a prisoner.
print—Either the stocks, or his disease, marked his soles (Hebrew, "roots") as the bastinado would. Better, thou drawest (or diggest) [Gesenius] a line (or trench) [Gesenius] round my soles, beyond which I must not move [Umbreit].
28. Job speaks of himself in the third person, thus forming the transition to the general lot of man (Job 14:1; Ps 39:11; Ho 5:12).