Job 13

TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION

13 -] Everything you say, I have heard before.

I understand it all. I know as much as you do. I-’m not your inferior.

3 But my dispute is with God, not you;

I want to argue my case with him.

4 You cover up your ignorance with lies;

you are like doctors who can-’t heal anyone.

5 Say nothing, and someone may think you are wise! 6 Listen to me state my case. 7 Why are you lying?

Do you think your lies will help God?

8 Are you trying to defend God?

Are you going to argue his case in court?

9 If God looks at you closely will he find anything good?

Do you think you can fool God, the way you fool men?

10 Even though your prejudice is hidden, he will reprimand you, 11 and his power will fill you with terror. 12 How stale your proverbs and arguments are! 13 Be quiet and give me a chance to speak,

and let the results be what they will.

14 I am ready to risk my life. 15 I-’ve lost all hope, so what if God kills me?

I am going to state my case to him.

16 It may even be that my boldness will save me,

since no wicked man would dare face God.

17 Now listen to my words of explanation. 18 I am ready to state my case,

because I know I am in the right.

19 God, are you going to come and accuse me?

If you do, I am ready to be silent and die.

20** **Let me ask for two things; agree to them,

and I will not try to hide from you:

21** **stop punishing me, and don-’t crush me with terror.

22 Speak first, God, and I will answer.

Or let me speak and you answer me.

23 Of how many wrongs and sins am I guilty?

What crimes am I charged with?

24 Why do you avoid me?

Why do you treat me like an enemy?

25 Are you trying to frighten me? I-’m nothing but a leaf;

you are attacking a dry piece of straw.

26 You bring bitter charges against me,

even for what I did when I was young.

27 You bind chains on my feet;

you watch every step and even examine my footprints.

28 As a result, I crumble like rotten wood,

like a moth-eaten coat.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 13:1-28

What warning does Job give in verse one?

Job could be giving a sarcastic response to Eliphaz in verse three. How so?

Job calls his friends plasterers of lies. Why? (Job 13:4)

Job says in verse five that the best way to show wisdom is not in words. In what then?

Job is going to argue his case. In verse seven who is involved in deceit or lying? Discuss.

Job’s friends are asked in verse eight to allow God to do for them what they want God to do for Job. What is it?

Why is Job so sarcastic? What lesson can we learn from this?

In Job’s promise of verse ten, what was fulfilled? When?

God seems less concerned than Job (or man). Such a thought has been used by present day humanists. To what purpose? How answered?

What is the play on words in verse eleven?

Job’s evaluation of his friend’s words could be described in two words. What are they?

Who is Job addressing in Job 13:13-19?

Explain Job 13:14 in your own words.

Job is willing to face God in a defense of his innocence. Was Job right? Discuss.

Job has a certain guarantee of innocence. What was it? Discuss.

Job actually believed that if he were called before God he could set his cause in such a way that he would be acquitted. Was he right? Discuss.

Spare me two things. What are they? This has been discussed before in Job 9:34. Cf. Isaiah 51:9; Jeremiah 2:13.

What were Job’s two requests? Why make them? Was this a reasonable request? Discuss.

Job would like to appear in God’s law court in one of two positions. What were they? Cf. Job 13:22.

There are three different Hebrew words for sin in Job 13:23. What are they? How do they relate to Job and us?

What point is made in Job 13:25?

The suffering of Job is bitter. In what way? Job imagines another reason for such suffering. What is it? Does God punish for past sins?

Discuss the three images of Job 13:27.

Job’s life is rotten and like a pest-eaten vine decaying with no hope of recovery. Are there such pessimists in our world today? Discuss.

Job 13:1-12

4. The friends are self-deceived. (Job 13:1-12)

TEXT 13:1-12

**Lo, mine eye hath seen all **this,

**Mine ear hath heard and understood it.

2 What ye know, **the same **do I know also:

I am not inferior unto you.

3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty,

And I desire to reason with God.

4 But ye are forgers of lies;

Ye are all physicians of no value.

5 Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace!

And it would be your wisdom.

6 Hear now my reasoning,

And hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

7 Will ye speak unrighteously for God,

And talk deceitfully for him?

8 Will ye show **partiality **to **him?

**Will ye contend for God?

9 Is it good that he should search you out?

Or as one deceiveth a man, will ye **deceive **him?

10 He will surely reprove you,

If ye do secretly show partiality.

11 Shall not his majesty make you afraid,

And his dread fall upon you?

12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,

Your defences are defences of clay.**

COMMENT 13:1-12

**Job 13:1**Job warns of defending God dishonestly: by opposing his experience to that of EliphazJob 4:8; Job 4:12; Job 5:3; Job 5:27. He turns to face God with his charges regardless of the cost.

**Job 13:2**This is a repetition of Job 12:3 b.

**Job 13:3**Job’s but as for me is possibly a sarcastic response to Eliphaz’s use of the same phrase. He told Job but as for me, I would seek God. Job replies, but as for me, I will challenge him to defend His behavior. Job desires to reason (cf. Isaiah 1:18reflective, reason together) with God. The term is a juridical word which means argue, reprove, reason in the sense of establish a case. Two emphatic words strongly set forth Job’s commitment to debate God, rather than his counselors. He denounces them.

**Job 13:4**He accused his friends with forging a lie (plasterers of liesverb means to besmear Psalms 119:69) to cover up the pain and agony which God causes. They are healers of no value (elimay come from the root, not, i.e., worthless). Physicians, heal yourselves!

**Job 13:5**Even a fool that is silent is counted among the wisePro 17:28. He implies that if his friends are truly wise they would show it by their silence. It is not their lot to shatter God’s silence.

**Job 13:6**Hear (emphatic in Hebrew) my reproofPro 1:23-25. The noun is from a root to argue my case (Job 13:3). The R. S. V. is perhaps the best translation of this verse. Now to the impeachment in Job 13:7-9.

**Job 13:7**Literally, you speak injustice (noun wrong Job 6:29; and parallel to deceit in Job 27:4). For God is in the emphatic position. The meaning is thatFor Godyou lie or speak deceitfully. Will you defend God by speaking proverbs of ashes?

**Job 13:8**Will you present God your face as His defender? What would God think (and do) if He investigated your actions? If God is a foe of injustice, He would be your foe. God’s cause is always the cause of truth. He is not flattered by your present dishonorable behavior. Why show favoritism with God, if He is just?

**Job 13:9**Sarcasm continues to flow as mighty waters from Job’s mouth. God is the sovereign creator of everything; He cannot be flattered. If God searched out the truth (same word used by Eliphaz Job 5:27) He would condemn you too.

**Job 13:10**Job’s prediction is later fulfilled, Job 42:7 f. The paradox here is seen as Job affirms his own righteous indignation against lying deceivers, and the creator of the universe seems less concerned than he is. This thesis is shared by contemporary naturalistic humanists who build their world-live view on the assumption of the inherent worth of the individual. Yet scientific naturalism’s functional view of man precludes any defense of such a universal value. There is no way to empirically justify a universal moral value.[157]

[157] For a critique of the relationship of Scientific Theories to Scientific Progress, see my analysis of the epistemological possibility of the scientific method in my doctoral thesis in process on The Kuhn-Popper Debate concerning the relationship of Presuppositions, Evidence, and the Paradigm Revolution: Two Contemporary Paradigms of Scientific Knowledge.

**Job 13:11**There is a magnificent play on words here in the Hebrew text. The parallelism between God’s majesty (se-’etho) or lifting up and show partiality indicates that God’s face (lift up his face) will strike fear or horror not joy in the beholder.

**Job 13:12**Job accuses his friends of coming to his aid with proverbs of ashes. (Zikrommaxims or memorials) Their words serve no purpose; they are already dead. Their answers (gabbim) are like crumbling clay (4:70), with biting sarcasm he becomes more aggressive. How long will you rake trifles or debris (megabbeb)? Your words and arguments are useless bits of clay.

Job 13:13-19

5. Job would dare to present his case before God. (Job 13:13-19)

TEXT 13:13-19

13 **Hold **your **peace, let me alone, **that I may speak;

And let come on me what will.

14 Wherefore should **I take **my flesh In my **teeth,

And put **my life in my hand?

15 **Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope:

Nevertheless I **will maintain **my ways before him.

16 This also **shall be **my salvation,

That a **godless man **shall not come before him.

17 Hear **diligently my speech,

**And **let my declaration be in your ears.

**18 **Behold **now, I have set my cause in order;

I know that I **am **righteous.

19 Who is he **that will contend **with me?

For then would I hold **my peace and **give up **the ghost.

COMMENT 13:13-19

**Job 13:13**The pronoun I is emphatic. Once more he is asking that his friends keep silent that he may speak to God.

**Job 13:14**There is a problem in this verse in that it begins with why.[158] But the sense is clear enough; since his life may pass away any moment, he will not hesitate to risk his life (Hebrew nepes) by confronting God (Judges 12:3; 1 Samuel 19:5; and 1 Samuel 28:21).

[158] See M. Dahood, Biblica et Orientalia, XVII,1965, p. 16.

**Job 13:15**With abandoned desperation, Job is prepared to challenge God. Yet (A. V. nevertheless is strong Hebrew adversative) absolutely nothing will cause Job to refrain from defending his innocence. His suffering is not self-entailed, his conscience is clear. He is not a rebel without a cause. Job is not revolting against God; rather he is going to face Him. Evil men inevitably run from the face or presence of God, as Adam did (Genesis 3:8) and Jonah.

**Job 13:16**Perhaps he can be saved by boldness, as Dostoevsky mistakenly thought, that man could be saved by suffering, to whom all suffering was vicarious. To Job, his readiness to face God is his guarantee of innocence. He believes that if God should speak to him, He would do so favorably. But love alone knows the healing art.

Job 13:17-‘Job calls for his opponents to listen carefully. Hear is a plural imperativeJob 13:6.

**Job 13:18**Job says I will set my things in order (Genesis 22:9; Psalms 23:5; Job 23:4-5; Job 27:19) and gain for myself acquittal (Job 11:2).

**Job 13:19**My things are in ordernow who can contend with me (Isaiah 1:8)? Who can sustain the charge of guilty? If one could reveal to him his guilt, he would gladly become silent and acknowledge his wickednessthrough silence.

Job 13:20-28

6. He calls on God for an arraignment. (Job 13:20-28)

TEXT 13:20-28

**20 **Only do **not two things unto me:

Then will I not hide myself from thy **face:

**21 Withdraw thy hand **far **from me;

And let not thy terror make me afraid.

22 Then call thou, and I will answer;

Or let me speak, and answer thou me.

23 **How **many are mine iniquities and sins?

Make me to know my **transgression and **my **sin.

**24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face,

And holdest me for thine enemy?**

25 Wilt **thou harass a driven leaf?

And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?

26 For thou writest **bitter things **against me,

And makest me to **inherit **the **iniquities of my youth:

27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks,

And markest all my paths; Thou settest a bound to **the soles of my **feet:

28 Though I am like a rotten thing **that **consumeth,

Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

COMMENT 13:20-28

**Job 13:20**Spare me two things: (1) one request is negative, (2) one positive. The substance of Job’s present request has been presented before in Job 9:34; see also Isaiah 51:19; Jeremiah 2:13. God first gives Job peace in suffering before relief from suffering. Job addresses God directly throughout the remainder of his speech.

**Job 13:21**Job’s two-pronged request is here stated: (1) withdraw your hand (yadecha) used in both positive sense of protection, and negative sense of afflicting pain and suffering (Exodus 33:22; and (2) do not use your sovereign power to terrify me.

**Job 13:22**The imagery is that of a law court where Job offers to appear as either appellant or respondentJob 14:15. The call is for either fellowship or indictment.

**Job 13:23**Job boldly asks for God to list the number and nature of his sins.[159] There are three different Hebrew words for sin used here: (1) root meaning to deviate from prescribed course; (2) root to miss attaining a goal or fulfilling an intentionally chosen goal; and (3) root form to revolt, freely rebel (Psalms 51).

[159] See G. Quell, G. Bertram, G. Stahlin, and W. Grundmann’s article in TWNT, Vol. I, E. T. Eerdmans; and K. Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin? (Hawthorn, 1973.)

**Job 13:24**God does not break His silence.

**Job 13:25**The A. V. harass should be translated something like terrify. Why should God, as sovereign of the universe, assail one so trivial and impotent to meet His challengePsa 1:4?

**Job 13:26**Has some sin in my youth brought on your bitter punishment? (Psalms 25:7) The word translated bitter is used of poison Job 20:14, and gall bladder in Job 20:25.

**Job 13:27**The three images employed here suggest arrest and the impossibility of escape (Job 33:11). God draws a line and no one can step beyond it. Slaves were identified by markings on various parts of the body (Isaiah 44:5; Isaiah 49:16), apparently also on the sole of the slaves-’ feet, in order to make tracking easier.

**Job 13:28**His life is rotten and like a pest-eaten vine decaying with no hope of recovery. This is despair conceived in the womb of pessimism and fathered by manacles of the mind.