Verse 1
Job 13:1. Lo, mine eye hath seen
all this — All this which either
you or I have discoursed
concerning the infinite power
and wisdom of God, I know, both
by seeing it, by my own
observation and experience, and
by hearing it from my ancestors.
Verse 3
Job 13:3. Surely I would speak
to the Almighty — I had rather
debate the matter with God than
with you. I am not afraid of
presenting my person and cause
before him, who is a witness of
my integrity, and would not deal
so unmercifully with me as you
do.
Verse 4-5
Job 13:4-5. Ye are forgers of
lies — That is, authors of false
doctrine, namely, that great
afflictions are peculiar to
hypocrites and wicked men. All
physicians of no value —
Unfaithful and unskilful;
prescribing bad remedies: and
misapplying good ones. O that ye
would altogether hold your peace
— The best proof of your wisdom
would be never to say a word
more of these matters; for then
your ignorance and folly would
be concealed, which are now made
manifest by your speaking
concerning what you do not
understand. Thus Solomon,
Proverbs 17:28, “Even a fool,
when he holdeth his peace, is
counted wise: and he that
shutteth his lips is esteemed a
man of understanding.”
Verses 6-8
Job 13:6-8. Hear now my
reasoning — Attend to it, and
consider it more seriously than
you have done; and hearken to
the pleadings of my lips — That
is, to the arguments which I
shall produce. Will ye speak
wickedly for God? — Will you
utter falsehoods upon pretence
of pleasing God, or of
maintaining God’s honour or
righteousness? Doth he need such
defences? Will ye accept his
person? — Not judging according
to the right of the cause, but
the quality of the person, as
corrupt judges do. Will ye
contend with God? — Or, will ye
plead, as the word, תריבון,
teribun, is rendered, 6:31. He
means, is his cause so bad as to
call for your assistance to
defend it? Will you plead for
him, as one person pleads for
another, making use of little
arts and subtle contrivances in
his defence? He wants no such
crafty, unprincipled advocates.
“Job here convicts his friends
of wickedness, in taking upon
them to defend God in an
improper manner, as if he needed
their rash censures to vindicate
the ways of his providence. This
was such a fault, as they had
but too much reason to fear
might one time or other draw
down his severe chastisements on
their own heads.” See Peters.
Verse 9-10
Job 13:9-10. Is it good that he
should search you out? — Will it
be to your credit and comfort,
that he should narrowly examine
your hearts and discourses,
whether you have uttered truth
or falsehood, and whether your
speeches have proceeded from
true zeal for the glory of God,
or from your own prejudices and
passions? Do ye so mock him? —
By covering your
uncharitableness and corrupt
affections with pretences of
piety, as if God could not
discern your artifices; or, by
pleading his cause with weak and
foolish arguments, which is a
kind of mockery of him, and an
injury to his cause; or, by
seeking to flatter him with
false praises, as if he
distributed the things of this
world with exact justice,
prospering only the good, and
severely afflicting none but
wicked men. He will surely
reprove you — Hebrew, הוכח יוכח,
hocheach, jocheach, redarguendo
redarguet, in confuting, he will
confute you; that is, he will
surely confute, or punish you,
as the word often means. “He
will severely chastise you, for
designing to gratify him by
condemning me.” — Bishop
Patrick. If ye do secretly
accept persons — Though it be
concealed in your own breasts,
and no eye see it; yea, though
your own minds and consciences,
through ignorance or
inadvertency, do not perceive
it; yet he, who is greater than
your consciences, sees and knows
it.
Verse 11-12
Job 13:11-12. Shall not his
excellency — His infinite
wisdom, which sees your secret
falsehood, and his justice and
power, which can and will punish
you for it; make you afraid? —
Of speaking rashly or falsely of
his ways and counsels. Your
remembrances — Hebrew, זכרניכם,
zichronechem, your memorials;
or, as Chappelow translates it,
memorabilia vestra, your
remarkable things, your
discourses, and arguments, and
memorable actions; are like unto
ashes — Contemptible and
unprofitable, Hebrew, משׁלי אפר,
mishle epher, are parables or
speeches of dust or ashes,
mouldering, as it were, and
coming to nothing. All that is
most excellent and memorable in
you; your wealth, and dignity,
and wit, and reputation, or
whatsoever it is for which you
expect to be remembered, it is
all but poor despicable dust and
ashes; for, your bodies are like
to bodies of clay — Though they
be not full of sores and biles
as mine is, yet they are but
dust, and to dust they shall
return, as well as mine. The
consideration of our mortality
should make us afraid of
offending God.
Verse 13
Job 13:13. Hold your peace — Do
not now interrupt me in my
discourse; which, peradventure,
he observed by their gestures,
some of them were now
attempting; let me alone, that I
may speak — That I may freely
utter my whole mind; let come on
me what will — Whatever the
event may be, I am determined to
speak in my own defence. My
friends may put an unfavourable
construction upon it, and think
the worse of me for it; but I
hope God will not make my
necessary defence to be my
offence, as they do: he will
justify me, (Job 13:18,) and
then nothing can come amiss to
me. Those that are upright, and
have the assurance of their
uprightness, may cheerfully
welcome every event. Come what
will, they are ready for it.
Verse 14
Job 13:14. Wherefore do I take
my flesh in my teeth, &c. — The
sense, according to some
commentators, is, Why do I
torment myself? Why do I grieve
so immoderately, like those
persons who, in their
afflictions, rend their
garments, and are ready to tear
their very flesh? But Bishop
Patrick’s paraphrase seems to
accord better with the context,
namely, “I am so conscious to
myself of my innocence, that I
must still wonder why I suffer
such enraging miseries, and am
exposed to so many dangers.”
Henry speaks to nearly the same
purpose: “Why do I suffer such
agonies? I cannot but wonder
that God should lay so much upon
me, when he knows I am not a
wicked man. He was ready, not
only to rend his clothes, but
even to tear his flesh, through
the greatness of his affliction;
and saw himself at the brink of
death, and his life in his hand;
yet his friends could not charge
him with any enormous crime, nor
could he himself discover any;
no marvel then he was in such
confusion.” The phrase of having
his life in his hand, denotes a
condition extremely dangerous.
Thus Jephthah tells the
Ephraimites, I put my life in my
hands and passed over against
the children of Ammon, 12:3.
That is, I exposed my life to
the greatest danger. Thus
Jonathan speaks of David: He put
his life in his hand, and slew
the Philistine, 1 Samuel 19:5.
The words, says Poole, may imply
“a reason of his ardent desire
of liberty of speech, because he
could hold his tongue no longer,
but must needs tear himself to
pieces, if he had not some vent
for his grief.” In which sense
the LXX. seem to have understood
him.
Verse 15
Job 13:15. Though he slay me —
But though God should yet more
and more increase my torments,
so that I could bear them no
longer, but should perceive
myself to be at the point of
death, without any hope of
recovery; yet will I trust in
him — Or, more exactly according
to the Hebrew text, Shall I not
trust in him? Shall I despair?
No; I will not, I know he is a
just, a faithful, and merciful
God; and he knows that my heart
is upright before him, and that
I am no hypocrite. But I will
maintain mine own ways — Though
I trust in him, yet I will
humbly expostulate the matter
with him. Hebrew, I will argue,
prove, or demonstrate my ways;
that is, I will make a free and
full confession of the whole
course of my life, and I will
boldly, though submissively,
assert my own integrity, which
he also, I doubt not, will
acknowledge. And, what I have
done amiss, I will as freely
confess, and make supplication
to my Judge for the pardon of
it. Before him — Hebrew, אל
פניו, el panaiv, before his
face, in his presence, or before
his tribunal, for I desire no
other judge but him.
Verse 16
Job 13:16. He also shall be my
salvation — I rest assured that
he will save me out of these
miseries, sooner or later, one
way or other, if not with a
temporal, yet with an eternal
salvation after death; of which
he speaks Job 19:25. For a
hypocrite — Or, rather, But a
hypocrite shall not come before
him — If I were a hypocrite, as
you allege, I durst not present
myself before him to plead my
cause with him, as now I desire
to do, nor could I hope for any
salvation from or with him in
heaven.
Verse 17
Job 13:17. Hear diligently my
speech — This he desired before,
(Job 13:6,) and now repeats,
either, because they manifested
some dislike of his speech, and
some desire to interrupt him;
or, because he now comes more
closely to the question; the
foregoing verses being mostly in
the way of preface to it. And my
declaration — That is, the words
whereby I declare my mind.
Verse 18-19
Job 13:18-19. Behold, now, I
have ordered my cause — Namely,
in my own mind. I have seriously
considered the state of my case,
what can be said, either for me
or against me, and am ready to
plead my cause. I know that I
shall be justified — Acquitted
by God of that hypocrisy and
wickedness wherewith you charge
me, and declared a righteous
person, human infirmities
excepted. Who is he that will
plead with me? — Let who will
come and accuse me, I am ready
to answer. If I hold my tongue,
I shall give up the ghost — My
grief would break my heart, if I
did not give vent to it.
Verses 20-22
Job 13:20-22. Let me only beg, O
great Judge of all, that thou
wilt forbear to make use of two
things against me. Then will I
not hide myself from thee — Then
will I appear confidently to
plead my cause before thee.
Withdraw thy hand from me —
Suspend my torments during the
time of my pleading with thee,
that my mind may be at liberty.
And let not thy dread make me
afraid — Do not present thyself
to me in terrible majesty,
neither deal with me in rigorous
justice. Then call thou, and I
will answer — Then choose thy
own method: either do thou
charge me with hypocrisy, or
more than common guilt, and I
will defend myself. Or let me
speak, &c. — I will argue with
thee concerning thy
extraordinary severity toward
me; and do thou show me the
reasons of it. This proposal
savours of self-confidence, and
of irreverence toward God; for
which, and the like speeches, he
is reproved by God, Job 38:2-3;
Job 40:2.
Verse 23-24
Job 13:23-24. How many are my
sins? — That I am a sinner, I
confess; but not that I am
guilty of such crimes as my
friends suppose; if it be so, do
thou, O Lord, discover it.
Wherefore hidest thou thy face?
— Withdrawest thy favour and
help, which thou hast been wont
to afford me; and holdest me for
thine enemy? — That is, dealest
as sharply with me as if I were
thy professed enemy.
Verse 25
Job 13:25. Wilt thou break a
leaf? &c. — Doth it become thy
infinite and excellent majesty
to use thy might to crush such a
poor, impotent, and frail
creature as I am, that can no
more resist thy power than a
leaf or a little dry straw can
resist the fury of the wind or
fire? Thus, whatever was
irreverent or unbecoming in
Job’s expressions, as recorded
in Job 13:22, is greatly
alleviated, as Dr. Dodd has
observed, from Peters, by the
humility and self- abasement
manifested in these last three
verses. Scarcely ever were the
feelings of the human heart,
burdened with an extraordinary
load of grief, expressed in a
more natural, or less blameable
way. He first wishes that God
would discover to him the
particular sins, if there were
any, for which he thus afflicted
him, intimating his readiness to
deplore them, and to correct his
errors for the future. Secondly,
he accounts it the greatest of
his calamities, that God should
hide his face from him, and deal
with him as an enemy; on whose
friendship and favour he had
always set the highest value;
had endeavoured to preserve it
by the integrity of his life,
and was resolved never to depart
from that integrity. Lastly, he
confesses his own meanness, or
rather nothingness, in
comparison of God; and that in a
manner so ingenuous and simple,
as to show that his complaints,
however passionate and moving,
did not proceed from pride or
stubbornness of spirit.
Verse 26
Job 13:26. For thou writest —
That is, thou appointest; bitter
things against me — A terrible
sentence, or most grievous
punishments. It is a metaphor
taken from the custom of princes
or judges, who anciently used to
write their sentences, or
decrees, concerning persons or
causes brought before them. And
makest me to possess the
iniquities of my youth — Dost
now, at once, bring upon me the
punishment of all my sins, not
excepting those of my youth,
which were committed before I
well knew what I did.
Verse 27
Job 13:27. Thou puttest my feet
also in the stocks — Thou
encompassest me with thy
judgments, so that I have no way
or possibility to escape. And
lookest narrowly unto all my
paths — Makest a strict and
diligent search into all the
actions of my life, that thou
mayest find matter for which to
condemn me. Thou settest a print
upon the heels of my feet — Thou
followest me close at the heels,
either to observe my actions, or
to pursue me with thy judgments;
insomuch, that thou dost often,
as it were, tread upon my heels,
and leave the prints of thy
footsteps upon them. Bishop
Patrick’s paraphrase here is, “I
can no more escape than a
malefactor, whose feet are in
the stocks, who is encompassed
with a vigilant guard, and
cannot stir a foot from the
place where he is.” Heath thinks
there is an allusion, in these
words, to the custom of putting
a clog on the feet of fugitive
slaves, that they might be
tracked and found.
Verse 28
Job 13:28. And he, as a rotten
thing — That is, man, as some
commentators suppose, thinking
that Job speaks of himself in
the third person, and that the
sense is, this poor frail
creature, this carcass, or body
of mine; consumeth — Or wasteth
away, and is destroyed; as a
garment eaten by moths — Others,
however, interpret the words
thus: He, that is, God,
consumeth me (understanding the
verb יבלה, jiblee, actively) as
rottenness consumeth that in
which it is, or, as a rotten
thing is consumed, &c.
Houbigant’s translation of the
verse is, So that I am become
like a thing consumed with
rottenness; like a garment eaten
up by the moth. |