“Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it.
What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.
“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.
But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.
Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?
Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?
Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality.
Shall not his majesty make you afraid, and his dread fall on you?
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.
“Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.
Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?
Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him.
Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.
See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.
Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
“Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:
withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.
Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.
How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.
Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?
Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?
For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:
You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 7, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 26, 27 For although he knew that God had a justice,…
For although he knew that God had a justice, which was manifest in his ordinary working and another in his secret counsel, yet he would utter his affection to God, because he was not able to understand the cause why he did thus punish him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–28 Job 13:1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this],…
Job 13:1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this], mine ear hath heard and understood it.
Ver. 1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all this] sc. All those effects of God’s providence, declared in the former chapter. I have not discoursed about God’s powerful and wise dispensation by rote, or without book; I have not blurted out what I believe not, or am not able to prove, as you have accused me; I have spoken both that which I have seen (and what is more sure than sight?) and that which I have heard and received from our ancestors and doctors (to whom you have frequently referred me, for better information). Mine ear, that sense of discipline, by which not learning only, but life also, entereth, Isa 55:3, hath heard it, and understood it too; which he addeth for further assurance. Job was a weighing hearer, as Mr Bradshaw was called the weighing divine (Mr Clark, in his Life). Let us learn by his example heedfully to observe God’s works, laying up experiences, and diligently to listen and learn the things that are taught us, or written for us by others, that we may grow to a right and ripe understanding of divine truths, and be able confidently to commend the same to others, as being upon sure grounds. See Mat 13:51-52.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 All this which either you or I have discoursed…
All this which either you or I have discoursed concerning the infinite power and wisdom of God, I know, both by seeing it, i.e. by my own observation and experience, and by hearing it from my ancestors; so that I did not need your tedious and impertinent discourses concerning those matters.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 13, 23 Job here warmly expresses his resentment of the unkindness…
Job here warmly expresses his resentment of the unkindness of his friends.
I. He comes up with them as one that understood the matter in dispute as well as they, and did not need to be taught by them, Job 13:1, Job 13:2. They compelled him, as the Corinthians did Paul, to commend himself and his own knowledge, yet not in a way of self-applause, but of self-justification. All he had before said his eye had seen confirmed by many instances, and his ear had heard seconded by many authorities, and he well understood it and what use to make of it. Happy are those who not only see and hear, but understand, the greatness, glory, and sovereignty of God. This, he thought, would justify what he had said before (Job 12:3), which he repeats here (Job 13:2): "What you know, the same do I know also, so that I need not come to you to be taught; I am not inferior unto you in wisdom." Note, Those who enter into disputation enter into temptation to magnify themselves and vilify their brethren more than is fit, and therefore ought to watch and pray against the workings of pride.
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II. He turns from them to God (Job 13:3): Surely I would speak to the Almighty; as if he had said, "I can promise myself no satisfaction in talking to you. O that I might have liberty to reason with God! He would not be so hard upon me as you are." The prince himself will perhaps give audience to a poor petitioner with more mildness, patience, and condescension, than the servants will. Job would rather argue with God himself than with his friends. See here, 1. What confidence those have towards God whose hearts condemn them not of reigning hypocrisy: they can, with humble boldness, appear before him and appeal to him. 2. What comfort those have in God whose neighbours unjustly condemn them: if they may not speak to them with any hopes of a fair hearing, yet they may speak to the Almighty; they have easy access to him and shall find acceptance with him.
III. He condemns them for their unjust and uncharitable treatment of him, Job 13:4. 1. They falsely accused him, and that was unjust: You are forgers of lies. They framed a wrong hypothesis concerning the divine Providence, and misrepresented it, as if it did never remarkably afflict any but wicked men in this world, and thence they drew a false judgment concerning Job, that he was certainly a hypocrite. For this gross mistake, both in doctrine and application, he thinks an indictment of forgery lies against them. To speak lies is bad enough, though but at second hand, but to forge them with contrivance and deliberation is much worse; yet against this wrong neither innocency nor excellency will be a fence. 2. They basely deceived him, and that was unkind. They undertook his cure, and pretended to be his physicians; but they were all physicians of no value, "idol-physicians, who can do me no more good than an idol can." They were worthless physicians, who neither understood his case nor knew how to prescribe to him - mere empirics, who pretended to great things, but in conference added nothing to him: he was never the wiser for all they said. Thus to broken hearts and wounded consciences all creatures, without Christ, are physicians of no value, on which one may spend all and be never the better, but rather grow worse, Mar 5:26.
IV. He begs they would be silent and give him a patient hearing, Job 13:5, Job 13:6. 1. He thinks it would be a credit to them if they would say no more, having said too much already: "Hold your peace, and it shall be your wisdom, for thereby you will conceal your ignorance and ill-nature, which now appear in all you say." They pleaded that they could not forbear speaking (Job 4:2, Job 11:2, Job 11:3); but he tells them that they would better have consulted their own reputation if they had enjoined themselves silence. Better say nothing than nothing to the purpose or that which tends to the dishonour of God and the grief of our brethren. Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is accounted wise, because nothing appears to the contrary, Pro 17:28. And, as silence is an evidence of wisdom, so it is a means of it, as it gives time to think and hear. 2. He thinks it would be a piece of justice to him to hear what he had to say: Hear now my reasoning. Perhaps, though they did not interrupt him in his discourse, yet they seemed careless, and did not much heed what he said. He therefore begged that they would not only hear, but hearken. Note, We should be very willing and glad to hear what those have to say for themselves whom, upon any account, we are tempted to have hard thoughts of. Many a man, if he could but be fairly heard, would be fairly acquitted, even in the consciences of those that run him down.
V. He endeavours to convince them of the wrong they did to God's honour, while they pretended to plead for him, Job 13:7, Job 13:8. They valued themselves upon it that they spoke for God, were advocates for him, and had undertaken to justify him and his proceedings against Job; and, being (as they thought) of counsel for the sovereign, they expected not only the ear of the court and the last word, but judgment on their side. But Job tells them plainly, 1. That God and his cause did not need such advocates: "Will you think to contend for God, as if his justice were clouded and wanted to be cleared up, or as if he were at a loss what to say and wanted you to speak for him? Will you, who are so weak and passionate, put in for the honour of pleading God's cause?" Good work ought not to be put into bad hands. Will you accept his person? If those who have not right on their side carry their cause, it is by the partiality of the judge in favour of their persons; but God's cause is so just that it needs no such methods for the support of it. He is a God, and can plead for himself (Jdg 6:31); and, if you were for ever silent, the heavens would declare his righteousness. 2. That God's cause suffered by such management. Under pretence of justifying God in afflicting Job they magisterially condemned him as a hypocrite and a bad man. "This" (says he) "is speaking wickedly" (for uncharitableness and censoriousness are wickedness, great wickedness; it is an offence to God to wrong our brethren); "it is talking deceitfully, for you condemn one whom yet perhaps your own consciences, at the same time, cannot but acquit. Your principles are false and your arguings fallacious, and will it excuse you to say, It is for God?" No, for a good intention will not justify, much less will it sanctify, a bad word or action. God's truth needs not our lie, nor God's cause either our sinful policies or our sinful passions. The wrath of man works not the righteousness of God, nor may we do evil that good may come, Rom 3:7, Rom 3:8. Pious frauds (as they call them) are impious cheats; and devout persecutions are horrid profanations of the name of God, as theirs who hated their brethren, and cast them out, saying, Let the Lord be glorified, Isa 66:5; Joh 16:2.
VI. He endeavours to possess them with a fear of God's judgment, and so to bring them to a better temper. Let them not think to impose upon God as they might upon a man like themselves, nor expect to gain his countenance in their bad practices by pretending a zeal for him and his honour. "As one man mocks another by flattering him, do you think so to mock him and deceive him?" Assuredly those who think to put a cheat upon God will prove to have put a cheat upon themselves. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. That they might not think thus to jest with God, and affront him, Job would have them to consider both God and themselves, and then they would find themselves unable to enter into judgment with him.
1. Let them consider what a God he is into whose service they had thus thrust themselves, and to whom they really did so much disservice, and enquire whether they could give him a good account of what they did. Consider, (1.) The strictness of his scrutiny and enquiries concerning them (Job 13:9) "Is it good that he should search you out? Can you bear to have the principles looked into which you go upon in your censures, and to have the bottom of the matter found out?" Note, It concerns us all seriously to consider whether it will be to our advantage or no that God searches the heart. It is good to an upright man who means honestly that God should search him; therefore he prays for it: Search me, O God! and know my heart. God's omniscience is a witness of his sincerity. But it is bad to him who looks one way and rows another that God should search him out, and lay him open to his confusion. (2.) The severity of his rebukes and displeasure against them (Job 13:10): "If you do accept persons, though but secretly and in heart, he will surely reprove you; he will be so far from being pleased with your censures of me, though under colour of vindicating him, that he will resent them as a great provocation, as any prince or great man would if a base action were done under the sanction of his name and under the colour of advancing his interest." Note, What we do amiss we shall certainly be reproved for, one way or other, one time or other, though it be done ever so secretly. (3.) The terror of his majesty, which if they would duly stand in awe of they would not do that which would make them obnoxious to his wrath (Job 13:11): "Shall not his excellency make you afraid? You that have great knowledge of God, and profess religion and a fear of him, how dare you talk at this rate and give yourselves so great a liberty of speech? Ought you not to walk and talk in the fear of God? Neh 5:9. Should not his dread fall upon you, and give a check to your passions?" Methinks Job speaks this as one that did himself know the terror of the Lord, and lived in a holy fear of him, whatever his friends suggested to the contrary. Note, [1.] There is in God a dreadful excellency. He is the most excellent Being, has all excellencies in himself and in each infinitely excels any creature. His excellencies in themselves are amiable and lovely. He is the most beautiful Being; but considering man's distance from God by nature, and his defection and degeneracy by sin, his excellencies are dreadful. His power, holiness, justice, yea, and his goodness too, are dreadful excellencies. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness. [2.] A holy awe of this dreadful excellency should fall upon us and make us afraid. This would awaken impenitent sinners and bring them to repentance, and would influence all to be careful to please him and afraid of offending him.
2. Let them consider themselves, and what an unequal match they were for this great God (Job 13:12): "Your remembrances (all that in you for which you hope to be remembered when you are gone) are like unto ashes, worthless and weak, and easily trampled on and blown away. Your bodies are like bodies of clay, mouldering and coming to nothing. Your memories, you think, will survive your bodies, but, alas! they are like ashes which will be shovelled up with your dust." Note, the consideration of our own meanness and mortality should make us afraid of offending God, and furnishes a good reason why we should not despise and trample upon our brethren. Bishop Patrick gives another sense of this verse: "Your remonstrances on God's behalf are no better than dust, and the arguments you accumulate but like so many heaps of dirt."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–28 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this,.... Or "all…
Lo, mine eye hath seen all this,.... Or "all those things" (h) he had been discoursing of, concerning the wisdom and power of God, and his friends also; some of these he had seen instances of, he had been an eyewitness of them, and could give an ocular testimony to them; and others he had discerned with the eyes of his understanding, being opened and enlightened, and had a clear and distinct view of them, so that he had seen and knew as much of these things as any of them had. Some (i) interpret it "all" other things, pertaining to the same subject; by what he had said, it might be concluded he knew more; this was but a sample or specimen of his knowledge, which, when observed, it might be perceived what an understanding he had in such divine things: the words are indeed absolute, "my eye hath seen all things" (k), which must not be taken in the largest and comprehensive sense of all things to be seen, heard, and understood; for though Job's knowledge was very great, yet it did not take so great a compass as this; many things in nature his eye had not seen, others in providence he could not discern, and but a small portion of God, of his nature, perfections, ways, and works, was known by him, as he himself confesses elsewhere, Job 26:14; this therefore must be limited and restrained to the subject matter in hand, and to what he and his friends had been treating of:
mine ear hath heard; some things he had knowledge of by the report of others, from his forefathers, his ancestors, men of capacity and probity, that could be credited, and safely depended on, and even some things by revelation from God; for if Eliphaz his friend had an heavenly vision, and a divine revelation, which his ear received a little of, why may it not be thought that Job also was sometimes favoured with visions and revelations from God, whereby he became more intimately acquainted with divine and spiritual things?
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and understood it; that is, what he had seen and heard; some things may be seen, and yet not known what they are; and other things may be heard, and not understood; but Job had an understanding of what he had seen with his own eyes, or had received by revelation, human or divine: and all this is introduced with a "lo" or "behold"; not as a note of admiration at his knowledge, though the things known by him were wonderful, but as a note of attention to them, and to his remark on them, and as expressive of the certainty of his sight, hearing, and understanding of these things.
(h) "omnia haec", V. L. Tigurine version, Beza, Michaelis; so Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator, Codurcus. (i) "Alia omnia", Schmidt. (k) "Omnia", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Bolducius, Cocceius, Schultens.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 8, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28 Job sharply reproves his friends, ver. 1-13. Professes his…
Job sharply reproves his friends, ver. 1-13. Professes his faith, ver. 14-16. Desires to be heard, ver. 17-19. Expostulates with God, ver. 20-28.
Lo - 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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Job defends himself against the accusations of his friends,
CHAPTER XIII
Job defends himself against the accusations of his friends,
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and accuses them of endeavouring to pervert truth, 1-8.
Threatens them with God's judgments, 9-12.
Begs some respite, and expresses strong confidence in God,
13-19.
He pleads with God, and deplores his severe trials and
sufferings, 20-28.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Verse 1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all this] Ye have brought nothing new to me; I know those maxims as well as you: nor have you any knowledge of which I am not possessed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 Job 13:1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all this…
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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this - I…
Lo, mine eye hath seen all this - I have seen illustrations of all that I have said, or that you have said about the methods of divine providence.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 All, without your information. (Calmet)
All, without your information. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Job wishes to plead his cause before God (Job…
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).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 Second division, first section — JOB’S DESIRE TO TRANSFER…
Second division, first section — JOB’S DESIRE TO TRANSFER HIS CAUSE FROM FALSE AND SYCOPHANTISH FRIENDS DIRECTLY TO GOD, Job_13:1-12.
First strophe — Announcing his purpose to appeal to God, Job cannot refrain from a well-deserved castigation of his persecutors, Job_13:1-6.
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2. Inferior unto you — See on Job_12:2.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 1–2. Looking back to his delineation of the Divine…
1–2. Looking back to his delineation of the Divine wisdom and might as they dominate among men and in the world (ch. Job_12:7-25), Job says that his knowledge of them is not inferior to that of the friends—a final answer to Zophar, ch. Job_11:6; cf. as to Job 13 :2Ch_12:3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27 (2) I am not inferior unto you.—I fall not…
XIII.
(2) I am not inferior unto you.—I fall not short of you. But it is this very sense of the inscrutableness of God’s dealings that makes him long to come face to face with God, and to reason with Him on the first principles of His action. As it is manifestly the traditionally orthodox position that his friends assume, it is refreshing to find that there may be some truth spoken for God by what is not so reckoned, and that more ultimate truth may exist in honest doubt than is sometimes found in the profession of a loosely-held creed. So the Laureate:
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“There lives more truth in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–28 Vers. 1, 2. The first two verses of ch.…
Vers. 1, 2. The first two verses of ch. 13 are closely connected with ch. 12, forming the natural termination to the first section of Job"s argument, that all results, whether good or evil, must be referred to God. Ver. 1 is little more than a repetition of Job_12:9 and ver. 2 of Job_12:3.
Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it. All the particulars mentioned concerning God"s government of the world in Job_12:6-25 are derived by Job from his own experience. His eye has seen them or his ear has heard them. He is not indebted to others for information on these simple points, which he regards as necessarily impressed by their experience on all grown men. (see Job_12:9)
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Vers. 1-16. Job to Zophar: 4. A wounded soul at bay.
I THE VOICE OF FIERCE RECRIMINATION. Transfixing on the spear-point of his remorseless logic the men who had mocked at his misery, and converted his very piety into a laughing-stock, with infinite scorn Job holds them up a spectacle to angels and to men, charging them with at least three most detestable offences.
1. Ignoring of facts. They had favoured him with their views of how God conducted the affairs of the universe, citing apothegms, quoting proverbs, and adducing similitudes carefully selected to bear out their peculiar dogmas and preconceived theories; but he too could string together wise saws extracted from the ancients, being in respect of traditionary lore not one whir behind them (ver. 2), and he had done it. (Job_12:6, Job_12:14-25) What is more, he had observed in the world around him exemplifications of everything he had advanced (ver. 1); and, unless they had been as blind as moles and as senseless as the ass to whose offspring they had compared him, they too must have frequently perceived the same. But they had not been willing to discover anything inconsistent with their favourite dogma; or they had travelled through the world with their eyes shut and their ears closed; or they had not been at the trouble to reflect and compare. Inattention, or want of observation, inconsideration, or want of reflection, insincerity, or want of a genuine love for the truth, are three formidable barriers in the way of man"s advancement in knowledge. The first is the fault of the careless, the second of the foolish, the third of the ungodly. Eye and ear, being the soul"s best gateways for knowledge, should be kept continually open. But the testimonies and reports which enter by these gateways should be subjected to diligent inspection and careful comparison. The truth once found should never fail to secure admission into the inner chamber of the heart.
2. Forging of lies. Instead of patiently collecting and collating facts from the opened page of human history, and deducing therefrom conclusions as to the principle or principles of the Divine government, Job"s friends first invented a theory, and then looked about for musty proverbs to support it. They were not philosophers or theologians at all, but simply theorists, inventors of sophisms, stitchers together of falsehoods, and fabricators of vanities (ver. 4), who had endeavoured to construct a theodicy by mingling together a little bit of fact and a large amount of fancy, or by patching together a handful of ancient platitudes. Much of modern science, philosophy, and even theology, proceeds upon the principle here so severely castigated. The true Baconian method of induction, first to ascertain with minute accuracy, not a few, but, as far as possible, all the facts of the case before pronouncing judgment as to the formula which shall explain them, is the only safe guide to be followed in philosophical discussion, scientific research, or theological investigation. A formula that does not embrace every known fact, much more that is contradicted by any known fact, cannot be correct.
3. Accepting of persons. Passing on to a more serious indictment, Job charges them with abject and contemptible sycophancy; with taking God"s side simply because they knew he was strong; with supporting his cause by means of arguments which were consciously insincere, and generally with playing the part of flatterers a course of conduct which Job declares to be:
(1) Wicked in itself. "Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?" (ver. 7). To propound fallacious theories, least of all to do so knowingly and deliberately, never can be right, even though such theories are advanced in favour of God and religion. This is practically done when men attempt to buttress up Divine truth, advance the Divine cause, or vindicate the Divine character by means of sophistical arguments. But not even in this case does the end sanctify, the means.
(2) Unjust towards himself. "Will ye accept his person? will ye contend, for God?" (ver. 8). To side with God in any controversy which he maintains with the creature never can be wrong considered in itself, (Rom_3:4) but to do so without regard to the rights of that creature with whom God contends never can be right. Job complained that, in declining to believe his protestations of integrity, and in cruelly assuming without proof that he was guilty, his friends were practically showing partiality towards God, and behaving with unfairness towards him. But it never can be fight, in order to justify God, to perpetrate injustice against man.
(3) Displeasing to God. "Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?" (ver. 9). Were God to investigate their conduct, he could not possibly extend to it his approbation. They would seem to him as persons who were attempting to jest with and deceive him, as men jest with and deceive their fellows. Their behaviour would be wholly abhorred by him whose patrons they had so presumptuously constituted themselves, since God never can approve of falsehoods or injustices even m support of his own cause, which stands in no need whatever of sophistries or patronage of any sort.
(4) Certain of exposure. "Shall it be well with you when he searches you out? or may you deceive him as a man is deceived?" No! verily. "He will surely reprove you, if ye secretly accept persons." And this in two ways; by confounding their persons: "Shall not his excellency make you afraid?" and exploding their doctrines: "Your remembrances," i.e. your memorable sayings, "are," or shall be, "like unto ashes;" literally, "shall be proverbs of ashes;" i.e. they shall be demonstrated to be as valueless and as easily effaced as similitudes traced upon the dust; "and your ramparts," i.e. the arguments behind which ye entrench yourselves, "shall be ramparts of clay," as easily broken through as mud wails.
II THE VOICE OF OUTRAGED INTEGRITY.
1. An appeal from man to God. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God!" (ver. 3). So David, when the mouth of the wicked and the tongue of the deceitful opened against him, addressed himself to God in prayer. (Psa_109:2-4) Christ also, when his enemies gaped upon him with their mouths, sought refuge against their calumnies in holy intercourse with God. (Psa_22:2-21 Mat_27:39-46 Joh_11:42) The example of both is commended to saints when similarly circumstanced, (Psa_55:22 Psa_91:15 Php_4:6 1Pe_5:7) and has been frequently followed. Many who have been denied justice at the hands of their fellows have been constrained to appeal to the tribunal of the skies. It is a great mercy that such a court exists for suffering men, and that its door is never closed against the suit of a distressed saint. (Psa_34:15 1Pe_3:12 Luk_18:7, Luk_18:8) On the contrary, God"s people are invited to repair to him in every time of trouble, (Psa_50:15 Psa_62:8 Rom_12:12 Heb_4:16) when burdened by affliction, when overtaken by spiritual anxiety, when misunderstood by men. If we may not maintain our sinlessness before God, (Psa_69:5) we can at least uphold our integrity. (Job_10:7 Joh_21:15, 16 Rom_1:9) But whatever be our case, it will be by him both exactly appreciated and tenderly sympathized with.
2. A request for non-interference on the part of man. "Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace I and it should be your wisdom" (ver. 5); "Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak" (ver. 13). Job advances two reasons for desiderating silence on the part of his friends.
(1) It would greatly enhance their reputation for wisdom. (cf. Pro_17:28) It is one mark of wisdom to know when to be silent; and it is better to he always silent than to utter heartless sophistries and pointless platitudes like those of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
(2) It would greatly facilitate his converse with God. In the soul"s supreme moments of spiritual distress, few things are more irksome than the well-meant but almost always irritating admonitions and advices of good people. The ordinary mind fails to see that, as there is a joy, so also there is a sorrow, with which no stranger can intermeddle. (Pro_14:10) Besides, the great controversy between God and the human soul must be fought out in solitude and in silence, like the struggle at the ford of Jabbok between the angel and Jacob. (Gen_32:24)
3. The determination to defend his cause with God.
(1) At all hazards. Job is prepared to go forward, "let come on him what will;" "to take his flesh in his teeth, and put his life in his hand;" to undergo death itself if need be. "Behold! he may slay me: I entertain no hope," i.e. , of any other issue to the conflict: "yet will I maintain my ways before him." However this verse be translated (vide Exposition), it contains a threefold testimony to Job"s deeply seated consciousness of his own personal integrity; to Job"s clear moral honesty, since a hypocrite would never have proposed to invite the Divine inspection of himself and his ways; and to Job"s exalted heroism, which would rather brave death than dishonour, clinging to God with invincible fidelity in spite of overwhelming temporal disaster and mental anxiety; yea, in the face of death and dissolution a sublime refutation of the Satanic calumny. (Job_2:5)
(2) Yet not without hope. Job was inwardly persuaded that the ultimate result of his venture would be triumphant vindication and salvation. This conviction was grounded on the fact of his intense inward longing to stand face to face with God. His reasoning takes the form of a syllogism. It is impossible that a man conscious of hypocrisy should desire an interview with God. But such desire is the all-absorbing passion of my soul. Therefore I indulge the hope that! am not a hypocrite, and that he who now seems to be my Adversary will eventually prove my Salvation.
Learn:
1. It is the delight of a good man, the sign of a wise man, and the duty of all men, to study the ways and works of God.
2. It is no sin to vindicate one"s character when that is wrongly aspersed.
3. It requires a good cause to enable a weak man to speak with the Almighty.
4. It is not a fault in manners to reprove good men when they tell lies.
5. It is a fault in good men when they depart from the troth even by a hair"s breadth.
6. It is infinitely wiser not to talk at all than to talk like a fool.
7. It is dangerous to summon allies from the devil"s camp, even when fighting in the Lord"s battles.
8. It is an insult to God to suppose that light and darkness, truth and error, sincerity and hypocrisy, righteousness and unrighteousness, Christ and Belial, can be confederates.
9. It is better to revere God"s holiness on earth than to tremble before his glorious power in a future world.
10. It is a poor defence that even a good man finds in lies and deceptions.
11. It is preferable to part with life than with faith in God.
12. It is certain that, though a humble believer may be slam, he never can be lost.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-22. Man"s injustice and the justice of God.
Job proceeds to turn the tables upon these self-complacent friends, who are so disposed to moralize and find illustrations of their conceptions of the Divine righteousness at his expense. His friends, however, really do him a service; not, indeed, by manifesting the sympathy he craves, but by throwing him upon his own resources still better, by throwing him upon his God. The tonic of opposition is sometimes far more needed in mental suffering than is the soothing draught of sympathy. The former braces, the latter enervates. It appears to be so now with Job. He rouses the forces of his soul, as the palm tree stirs up its vital energies beneath the weight attached to its branches; and he rushes upon the last cast. He will throw himself, regardless of consequences, upon the pity and justice of the Eternal. J.
Vers. 1-12. Correction of the friends.
I TRANSITION IN JOB"S ADDRESS. (Vers. 1-3). He pauses for a moment before entering on a new course of thought. He asserts that his experience has not been without fruit. The eye"the ear, the mouth, (Job_12:11) are the physical symbols of living and actual experience. So St. John: "That which we have heard, ... seen with our eyes looked upon, and our bands have handled". (1Jn_1:1) And in no particular is their knowledge, in virtue of which they presume to lake so high ground, superior to his own.
II RESOLVE. "To speak to the Almighty, to reason with God." It is a bold, yet a truly reverential and a believing resolve. It reminds us of Abraham pleading for the cities of the plain, It is founded on the firm apprehension of the moral attributes of God, which he cannot deny without denying himself. On this ground we may even venture safely. Boldly we may come to the throne of grace, and beseech God not to forsake the eternal throne of his holiness.
III REJECTION OF THE INTERFERENCE OF HIS FRIENDS. (Vers. 4-6) No sooner is the resolve taken to appeal to God than new strength comes to the heart. Job rises above the cloud of misconstruction that has gathered about him, like the tall cliff towering above the clouds, and looks down with scorn on these "forgers of lies," these "worthless physicians." It is his turn to be the instructor, and theirs to hold their peace.
IV DENUNCIATION. (Vers. 7-9) He proceeds severely to expose their errors, and to lay bare the root from which they proceed.
1. They seek to honour God at the expense of truth, which is a corrupt zeal; for the God of truth can only be honoured by truth in words and deeds.
2. They are moved by the instinct of flattery, and thus become partial, one-sided advocates for God. But God is not exalted by depressing man, nor honoured by injustice done to his creatures.
3. Their accusations of others show ignorance of themselves. And how would it be if scrutiny were now to be made into their lives? and would they dare to cast the load of guilt on the unhappy in his awful presence? They are reflections like these which are needed to check the uncharitable thought and bridle the censorious tongue.
V MENACE. (Vers. 10-12) These grave faults cannot be committed with impunity. God would punish them for their partiality. His majesty, on his appearance, will confound them. They will be treated as sinners, and all their memoranda"their fine sayings, which they have got by heart rather than derived from deep experience (ver. 12), will be scattered like dust and fall to the ground like crumbling structures of clay. "For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall be brought unto judgment." Thus Job shakes himself free from his shallow counsellors before turning solemnly to God.
LESSONS.
1. In casting responsibility on others we may be incurring greater responsibility ourselves.
2. We should hesitate to apply truth to others before we have first applied it to ourselves.
3. Self-knowledge fits us for the office of counsel; blindness to self exposes us to rebuke and judgment. J.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Vers. 1, 2. Trite sayings.
Job"s complaint is that there was nothing new in his friends" pretentious harangues. All their pompous airs of superiority and authority did not deceive the patriarch, and prevent him from detecting the essentially commonplace character of their ideas.
I MOST SAYINGS ARE TRITE. It is not often given to a man to discover a new truth. Even when a person makes a remark that is original in him, i.e. that he has not derived from any other man, the probability is that some one else has said something very like it before. Too often, when a man is pretentious of novelty, what is fresh is only the garb of his notion. The newest extravagances in religion are generally only old heresies exhumed and magnetized into a semblance of life. It is foolish to think of astounding the world with our ideal. Even in Job"s day people were weary of the little stock of notions that was in circulation among the most intelligent classes.
II THE FUSSY REPETITION OF TRITE SAYINGS CAN DO NO GOOD. Job"s three friends only vexed the sorrowing man by repeating what he knew as well as they. The same mistake is often made in foolish attempts at administering consolation. No sayings are so trite as those that treat of suffering and its uses. The very commonness of the lot of suffering, and the very obviousness of some of its circumstances, have made the stock precepts of sorrow very familiar to all of us. It is useless to go to a person in trouble and repeat them once more. It would be better to be silent. Silence might affect him as a most original novelty.
III TRITE SAYINGS MAY BE TRUE AND IMPORTANT.
1. True. It is not to be supposed that men are generally the victims of delusions. One reason why certain sayings have become trite is that they have been proved by experience to be true. Had they been false they would have been discarded long since. No doubt there are venerable errors. Job"s friends" trite sayings were so one-sided that the truth of them was lost by perversion; but still most trite sayings must have a considerable amount of truth in them to stand the test of time.
2. Important. The triteness is generally a testimony to the importance; for if the sayings were of slight moment they would have been neglected. The current use of them presupposes some value attached to them. The gospel of Christ has become a trite saying to many. Yet it is as true and momentous as ever.
IV PERSONAL APPLICATION AND SYMPATHY MAY REVIVE INTEREST IN TRITE SAYINGS.
1. Personal application. It is difficult to be in earnest with a trite saying. Such a saying tends to become a mere form of words. It wears like a coin that has lost its effigy and legend. "Truths," says Coleridge, "of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bedridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors." But he adds, "There is one sure way of giving freshness and importance to the most commonplace maxims that of reflecting on them in direct reference to our own state and conduct, to our own past and future being.
2. Sympathy. The three friends applied the trite sayings to Job, but he would not take them home to himself. He justly considered that they did not apply to him in the way his friends supposed. They applied them without sympathy, and therefore without understanding Job. We may repeat very familiar words, and yet if the ring of sincerity and the tone of sympathy be in them they will still awaken interest. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 7, 15, 16, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 Surely I would speak to the Almighty.
Job_13:3-4
Surely I would speak to the Almighty.
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Man speaking to God
There is a great deal of human speaking that has to do with God. Most speak about God, many speak against God, and some speak to God. Of these there are two classes--Those who occasionally speak to Him under the pressure of trial; those who regularly speak to Him as the rule of their life. These last are the true Christ-like men.
I. Speaking to God shows the highest practical recognition of the Divine presence. It indicates--
1. A heart belief in the fact of the Divine existence.
2. A heart belief in the personality of the Divine existence. What rational soul would speak to a vain impersonality? Man may justly infer the personality of God from his own personality.
3. A heart belief in the nearness of the Divine existence. It feels that He is present.
4. A heart belief in the impressibility of the Divine existence. It has no question about the Divine susceptibility.
II. Speaking to God shows the truest relief of our social nature. Social relief consists principally in the free and full communication to others of all the thoughts and emotions that must affect the heart. Before a man will fully unbosom his soul to another, he must be certified of three things--
1. That the other feels the deepest interest in him. Who has such an interest in us as God?
2. That the other will make full allowance for the infirmities of his nature. Who is so acquainted with our infirmities as God?
3. That the other will be disposed and able to assist in our trials. Who can question the willingness and capability of God?
III. Speaking to God shows the most effective method of spiritual discipline.
1. The effort of speaking to God is most quickening to the soul.
2. The effort of speaking to God is most humbling to a soul.
3. The effort of speaking to God is most spiritualising to the soul. It breaks the spell of the world upon us; it frees us from secular associations; it detaches us from earth; and it makes us feel that there is nothing real but spirit, nothing great but God, and nothing worthy of man but assimilation to and fellowship with the Infinite.
IV. Speaking to God shows the highest honour of a created spirit. The act implies a great capacity. What can show the greatness of the human soul so much as this exalted communion? (Homilist.)
But ye are forgers of lies.--
Lies easily forged
Lying is so easy that it is within the capacity of everyone. It is proverbially easy. It is as easy as lying, says Hamlet, when speaking of something not difficult. You can do it as you work or as you walk. You can do it as you sit in your easy chair. You can do it without any help, even in extreme debility. You lie, and it does not blister your tongue or give you a headache. It is not attended with any wear and tear of constitution. It does not throw you into a consumption--not even into a perspiration. It is the cheapest of sins. It requires no outlay of money to gratify this propensity. There is no tax to pay. The poorest can afford it, and the rich do not despise it because it is cheap. Neither does it cost any expenditure of time. After the hesitancy of the first few lies you can make them with the greatest ease. You soon get to extemporise them without the trouble of forethought. The facilities for committing this sin are greater than for any other. You may indulge in it anywhere. You cannot very well steal on a common, or swear in a drawing room, or get drunk in a workhouse; but in what place or at what time can you not lie? You have to sneak, and skulk, and look over your shoulders, and peep, and listen, before you can commit many sins; but this can be practised in open day, and in the market place. You can look a man in the face and do it. You can rub your hands and smile and be very pleasant whilst doing it. (J. Teasdale.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 I. Job re-asserts his knowledge of the Divine procedure…
JOB’S REPLY TO ZOPHAR—CONTINUED
I. Job re-asserts his knowledge of the Divine procedure as not inferior to that of his friends (Job_13:1-2).
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“Lo, mine eye,” &c. Right in certain circumstances to maintain one’s own knowledge, but without vain glory (2Co_11:6; Eph_3:4). Three things suggested in the words of Job as necessary to the
Acquisition of knowledge
1. Observation. “Mine eye hath seen all this.” Important to make a right use of one’s eyes. God’s works both of creation and providence to be carefully observed. To observe God’s works and ways is both a part of wisdom and the means of increasing it (Psa_107:43). A mark of the ungodly and a cause of their destruction, not to regard the works of the Lord nor the operation of His hand (Psa_28:5; Isa_5:12). Often the best knowledge that which is obtained by careful personal observation. “Come and see,” a common phrase in the Jewish schools, and frequently repeated in the New Testament (John 1; Revelation 6). Better to see for ourselves than to hear from others. The eyes, as well as the ears, are the purveyors for the mind.
2. Attention to the instruction of others. “Mine ear hath heard.” Moral and religious instruction at that time mostly oral. Consisted mainly in the recitation of proverbial maxims or truths delivered in short sentences. Such frequently quoted by Job and his friends. Reference made here to such. Each individual’s own personal observation necessarily limited. The testimony of others required to supplement our own observation. The privilege and duty of one to avail himself of the testimony and conclusions of another. Since the invention of printing, the extension of education, the employment of steam, and the removal of the taxes on knowledge,—the testimony and instruction of others now addressed nearly as much to the eye as to the ear. Reading now greatly takes the place of hearing, as the means of obtaining knowledge.
3. Reflection. “Hath understood (or considered) it.” Reflection an appropriating and assimilating process. Turns to account what is observed, read, or heard. Reading and hearing are with a view to reflection, as food is taken into the mouth only with a view to its being digested in the stomach. Food only serves the purpose of nutrition when properly masticated and digested. The eye and the ear collect the materials for the mind to work upon. Reading, as Bacon says, makes a full man; but reflection makes an intelligent, a growing, and a sure man. The want of consideration the characteristic of the way-side hearers. The reason of the Word of God, when heard, not entering the heart, and so of its being caught away by the enemy (Mat_13:19).
II. His desire and resolution to address himself to God (Job_13:3).
“Surely, (or ‘however’) I would (or will) speak to the Almighty; and I desire to reason (or debate the case) with God.” Observe—
1. Great comfort to a believer in being able to take his case to God. Many things may be poured into God’s ear which may not be uttered to man’s. Our comfort that in every controversy an appeal may be made from man to God. The heart in trouble eased by pouring itself out to our Father in heaven. The best way to dispose of difficulties and perplexities is to take them at once to God. Better to take our case to God than to man, as—
(1) He is better acquainted with it, and can make no mistake about it;
(2) Will give a more just decision, being neither influenced by passion nor prejudice;
(3) Will shew more tenderness and sympathy in dealing with it.
2. God’s great condescension in allowing a creature to reason with Him. His desire that we should do so (Isa_1:18; Isa_41:21; Isa_43:26). Our privilege to plead with Him, not to justify ourselves as righteous, but to be justified by Him as sinners. In the Gospel, God permits us to plead with Him for justification and acceptance on the ground of a better righteousness than our own. His invitation (Isa_1:18); David’s resolution (Psa_71:16); Paul’s triumph (Rom_8:33-34).
III. Vehement retort from his friends (Job_13:4).
“But ye are forgers of lies (or, ‘stitchers up of falsehood,’ ‘disappointing surgeons,’ or ‘framers of false arguments,’), ye are all physicians of no value” (or, ‘of nothingness,’ or ‘idol physicians,’ as Zec_11:17). They had come professedly to bind up their friend’s wounds, and heal his diseased mind. In doing this they had only employed false and futile arguments. Had applied useless remedies, and misapplied good ones. Had set out on the false principle that great sufferings prove great sins, and that temporal prosperity must always accompany true piety. Had therefore concluded that Job must be both a transgressor and a hypocrite. Had consequently employed arguments to bring him to humiliation, repentance, and prayer. Among other arguments, had held out to him the promise of deliverance from trouble and restoration to prosperity. Observe—
1. Much wisdom required in ministering to a mind diseased. Care to be taken to employ only solid considerations and sound arguments. Only truth will satisfy and heal a troubled spirit. Preachers to beware of “daubing with untempered mortar.”
2. Scripture truth, rightly applied, the only medicine for sin-sick souls. Scripture written that through patience and comfort from it we might have hope (Rom_15:4). Paul’s direction to Christian mourners: “Comfort one another with these words,”—the truths he had just stated (1Th_4:18).
3. The honour and corresponding responsibility of being made a physician of souls. Requires—
(1) Study and knowledge of cases;
(2) Knowledge of the requisite remedies;
(3) Skill in applying them;
(4) Sympathy with the sufferer. Christ the Great Physician of souls, and an example to all others. The best thing the preacher can do is to direct the Christian mourner and the sin-sick soul to Him (1Co_2:2).
VI. Keen remonstrance and reproof (Job_13:5-13).
1. Begs his friends only to refrain from speaking altogether (Job_13:5). “O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.”—Job_13:13. “Hold your peace, and let me alone.” Application of the maxim in Pro_17:28. Silence may not only give the appearance of wisdom, but is often wisdom itself. The part of a wise man either not to speak, or to speak to the purpose. Our speech to be “with grace, seasoned with salt.”
2. Bespeaks their attention to his reasoning and reproof (Job_13:6). “Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.” A duty owed to a brother both to prove and reprove—to prove error and reprove sin in him (Lev_19:17; Pro_9:8).
3. Shews their sin in acting as they had done. Their sin—
(1) In dissembling and using false arguments, while pretending to defend God and His procedure (Job_13:7). “Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him”—(speaking differently from what their consciences believed, in order to please God and uphold his cause). To make God appear just in afflicting Job, they, contrary to their convictions, wished to make him out a guilty transgressor. Observe—(i.) God needs no false doctrine or unsound reasoning to defend Him or His doings.—(ii.) God’s cause needs no sinful compromises or questionable measures to uphold it. Neither the wrath nor the wrong-doing of man “worketh the righteousness of God.”—
(2) In giving partial judgment for God, and presuming to make themselves His patrons, as if he needed either their favour or defence (Job_13:8). “Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?” Good men to be God’s witnesses, but not His patrons or advocates. A sin in His sight to judge, not according to the merits of the case, but the quality of the parties. Partiality in reference to men an injustice, in reference to God an insult. God’s cause to be defended not with favour and partiality, but with truth and justice. Favour and acceptance of persons in judgment so obnoxious to God that He accounts it a sin, even when in reference to Himself. Only a blind, false, and superstitious regard to religion defends it with anything but truth and honesty.—
3. In condemning what they secretly believed to be right, or maintaining with their lips what they did not believe in their hearts (Job_13:9). “Is it good (or will it be for your advantage) that he search you out (examine and expose your secret motives?) Or as one man mocketh another, do ye so so mock him? He will surely reprove you, if you do secretly accept persons. Shall not His excellency make you afraid (of acting thus hypocritically), and His dread fall upon you?” (or, ‘is it not His majesty that makes you afraid [of speaking according to your convictions] and does not the dread of him overwhelm you?’ [so as to act hypocritically in the matter]. Their condemnation of Job not from conviction of his guilt but from fear of God’s displeasure, and the desire to appear on His side. Observe—(i.) All dissimulation hateful to the God of truth. Believers so to act as willing to bear the scrutiny of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. (ii.) Fearful mockery of God to cloak our want of charity to man with a pretended zeal for God. (iii.) Necessary in maintaining the cause of religion, to examine our motives and the means we employ in doing so. A good cause may be defended from evil motives, and a bad cause may be upheld under the appearance of piety. A sin to act from slavish fear of the Almighty, rather than from conviction and a regard to truth.
4. Declares the worthlessness of his friends’ authorities and maxims with reference to the case in hand (Job_13:12). “Your remembrances are like ashes (or, ‘your memorial sayings are proverbs of ashes,’—worthless, and easily scattered by the wind); your bodies to bodies of clay” (or, “your towers, or defences,”—i.e., your arguments and maxims—are “towers of mud,”—as opposed to those of stone, without strength or solidity, and easily thrown down). Probably a proverbial phrase for weak and worthless arguments. The reference to the quotations from the ancients in his friends’ speeches. These called “remembrances,” or “memorial sayings,” as intended to be carried in the memory, and so kept ready for use. Particularly numerous among the Arabs, and taking the place of laws. Abundant in the speeches of Job and his friends, especially of the latter. Great part of Oriental wisdom and learning consisted in the knowledge and ready recitation of these traditional maxims. Their value to be decided on their respective merits. Not to be regarded as in themselves inspired productions. Probably neither their authors nor reciters inspired men. As much wisdom required in the application as in the composition of them. “A parable in the mouth of fools” proverbially worthless and injurious (Pro_26:7; Pro_26:9). In the case of Job’s friends the fault chiefly in the application. The maxims themselves generally good, according to the views prevalent at the period. Care to be taken by preachers and others—
(1) That quotations, especially those from Scripture, are correctly applied;
(2) That the arguments they employ are solid ones—not “defences of mud.”
V. His Resolution to plead his cause with God at whatever risk (Job_13:13).
“Let me alone, that I (or I myself) may speak (viz. to God), and let come on me what will.” (Job_13:14).—“Wherefore do I (or, ‘come what may,’—repeated from previous verse,—‘I will) take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand.” A proverbial expression for “expose myself,” viz., to the threatened peril of suffering for presumption in pleading his cause with God. The attempt considered by his friends as most daring and perilous. Faith and a good conscience are courageous, even in reference to God Himself (1Jn_3:21). The righteous are bold as a lion (Pro_28:1). “Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.” Job’s case with God that of Esther with the king: “I will go, and if I perish I perish” (Est_4:16). Abraham’s case in pleading for Sodom: “I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes (Gen_18:27. Necessity and love make men courageous.—Job_13:15. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him (or, ‘behold, he will slay me,’ or let Him slay me, I will not expect’ [anything else]—the Hebrew words for ‘not’ and ‘in him,’ the same in sound); but I will maintain (or, ‘only I will prove and argue’) my ways before Him.” The antithesis between the third and the first and second clauses, rather than between the second and the first. Observe—
1. The boldness of Job’s faith and conscious integrity here rises to its highest pitch. Though with only death before him as the result, he will still maintain his integrity, even at the tribunal of the Almighty. THE HEAT AND TURNING POINT OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN GOD AND SATAN IN THESE WORDS. Satan’s charge,—Job will give up all, even his religion, to save his life. Thus it will be shown that God has not a sincere disinterested servant in the world; that all religion is mere selfishness and time-serving policy. God will thus be stripped of His honour in the universe. For Job to have given up his integrity and acknowledged he was not the man he had appeared, would have given the victory into Satan’s hand. Job would have been condemned out of his own mouth. Fear would have made him a liar, and to save his life he would have thrown away his religion. This the aim of Satan, and the tendency of all the arguments of his friends, cunningly suggested by himself. JOB PREFERS TO DIE, and Satan is defeated. Glorious triumph of faith and a good conscience! Many a believer, like Job, the battle-field between God and Satan. As he maintains faith and a good conscience, God is honoured and Satan put to shame.
2. Job persuaded that though his during might end in death, it would ultimately prove his deliverance (Job_13:16). “He also (or, ‘even this’) shall be my salvation; for an hypocrite [as Job’s friends charged him with being] shall not come before him.” The fact of his appealing to God in the face of such peril, a proof of his innocence. “The foolish shall not stand in His presence” (Psa_5:5). The righteous Judge would acquit him of the charges of his friends, and of any sin as the cause of his suffering. Even should death ensue, a deliverance awaited him beyond death. His innocence would be vindicated, which with him was salvation. The day would come when this would be done before an assembled universe (ch. Job_19:25). The believer’s case always safe in God’s hands (2Ti_1:16.).
VI. Job requests his friends’ attention to his pleading, and predicts his success (Job_13:17).
“Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration [in reference to my innocence] with your ears. Behold now, I have ordered my cause (—have already set in order my pleading as a general draws up his forces for battle); I know that I shall be justified” (—shall gain the cause and be pronounced righteous by my Judge). Job actually justified by God as he expected, though not till he had humbled himself and repented in dust and ashes (ch. Job_42:6). Observe—
(1) The boldness and assurance of a good conscience before a righteous tribunal.—
(2) Job’s language that of Christ himself, and of the believer trusting as a sinner in Christ’s merits (Isa_50:7-9; Rom_8:32-34). Job, in the circumstances, rightly trusted to his innocence and integrity as the ground of his justification by God. Men, as sinners, have not to plead their own righteousness as the ground of their acceptance, but that of the Surety provided for them by God Himself. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again.” Christ’s name and title, The Lord our righteousness (Jer_23:6). This also the righteousness of Job, viewed as in common with others a sinner before God (ch. Job_40:4; Job_42:6). Job upright in his life as a true servant of God, and so justified by his own righteousness before men; Job a sinner in himself in the eye of the Divine law, and so justified by the righteousness of his Surety before God.
VII. Introduction to the pleading (Job_13:19-22).
1. Challenges any opponent in the controversy (Job_13:19). “Who is he that will plead with me?” Defies any to shew that he is guilty of any crime deserving such unusual treatment. Similar challenge by God’s righteous Servant (Isa_50:8); and by the Apostle in reference to believers (Rom_8:32).
2. Expresses his intense desire to plead his cause before God, whatever the result. “For now if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost” (or, “for now [if he can make good his cause against me and prove me guilty] I will hold my tongue and die”).
3. Begs only to be freed from restraint in pleading (Job_13:20). “Only do not two things unto me, then will I not hide myself from thee.” These two things specified—
(1) The removal or lightening of his present suffering; “Withdraw thine hand far from me” (Job_13:21).
(2) The withholding the overwhelming terror of his majesty; “and let not thy dread make me afraid.” The result of this request being granted,—“Then call thou (as plaintiff in the case), and I will answer (as defendant); or let me speak (as plaintiff), and answer thou me [the complaints that I have to make].” His wish either that God would accuse and give him an opportunity of answering for himself; or allow him to present his complaint as suffering without any known cause. No small presumption in the eyes of the friends for Job to wish either of these. The language only to be excused in the peculiar circumstances of the case. No sinner’s part either to complain against God, or to answer His charges. Ultimately Job is taught to give up the place both of plaintiff and defendant. Observe—
1. Job’s difficulties in pleading his cause were—God’s hand upon him, and God’s dread over him. God’s hand easily made too heavy for any creature to bear. If so heavy on a saint, what must it be on a sinner? “If these things are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” If God’s dread be overwhelming to a saint in a world of mercy, what will it be to the sinner in a world of doom? Good so to realise God’s terror now, as to escape it hereafter.
2. The difficulties removed, Job would plead with God and not hide himself from Him. Natural for fallen men to seek to hide themselves from God. Adam’s first act after the Fall was to sew fig-leaves together to hide his own nakedness; his second, to hide himself from God among the trees. Peter’s language to Christ the natural expression of conscious guilt in presence of Divine majesty: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Christ the true hiding-place of a sinner provided by God himself. Hidden by faith in the clefts of that Rock, the sinner can behold the majesty of God without dread.
VIII. Job pleads with God (Job_13:23-28).
1. Asks to be shewn his sins which are the cause of his suffering (Job_13:23). “How many are mine iniquities and my sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. Wherefore hidest thou thy face,” &c. This not a confession of sin, but a desire to have it shown. Asked more in the spirit of self-justification than of humility. Job unconscious of such sin as to merit such suffering, yet willing to know it. First, as to the mumber of his sins, then any particular transgression that has entailed such chastisement. Three different kinds of offences indicated—
(1) Iniquities, or perverse deviations from the Divine law;
(2) Sins, or failures in duty;
(3) Transgression, or the most heinous kind of sin, involving rebellion and wilful breach of the law of God. Though not the cause of his sufferings, yet Job’s offences immensely more numerous than he was aware of. Like Paul, had lived in all good conscience; yet secret unknown sins might still exist. David’s acknowledgement—“Innumerable evils have compassed me about—mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head” (Psa_40:12). God’s testimony in regard to fallen man before the Flood, “Every imagination of the thought of his heart is only evil continually;” after the Flood, “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21). Man’s natural heart a poisonous upas tree and a corrupt spring. The fruit necessarily partakes of the nature of the tree; the streams, of that of the spring. Sin, in consequence of its effects on the soul, usually not known. Like the fish that discolours the water by its own secretion, and so escapes its pursuer. Important prayer (Psa_19:12; Psa_26:2; Psa_139:23). Job ultimately made to know his transgression and his sin (ch. Job_42:6). The discovery of the Divine glory is at the same time a discovery of our own sin. The result of Job’s trouble, as of all sanctified affliction. Knowledge of sin necessary to the knowledge of salvation. “The whole have no need of the physician.” Sense of sin needful to sense of the blood that was shed for its remission.
2. Pleads his present condition.
(1) As forsaken by God. “Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?” (Job_13:24). This the most painful element in his sufferings. So with David (Psa_13:1; Psa_22:1), and with David’s Lord (Mat_27:48). Implies previous enjoyment of His presence and favour (ch. Job_29:3-5). Only those who have known the sweetness of God’s fellowship can realise the greatness of its loss. Intolerable to a child of God to be regarded and treated as an enemy.
(2) As feeble and afflicted. “Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?” Touching images of frailty and prostration—a leaf driven to and fro by the wind, and dry stubble, worthless and ready to take fire. Seemed unbecoming the Divine majesty to pursue so feeble a creature with so much severity. Job’s sufferings already of some continuance. Had consisted in successive blows, increasing in severity, without mitigagation or suspension.—To the eye of sense God’s dealings often unnatural and unlike Himself. Hereafter seen to be all holy, and wise, and good, infinitely becoming His Divine Majesty and character. Winter with its gloom, as necessary and as much a part of nature’s economy, as summer with its glow. “God is His own interpreter,” &c. Contrast with Job’s pleading what the Saviour actually does (Psa_42:3).
3. Complains of the Divine treatment (Job_13:26-28).—
(1) That God visited upon him the sins of his youth. “Thou writest bitter things against me (—decreest bitter sufferings for me as the punishment of my offences), and makest me to possess (Heb. ‘inherit’) the iniquities of my youth (—to suffer the punishment of sins long passed, committed in the season of thoughtlessness, and then passed over).” Job entirely in the dark in egard to God’s present dealings and the cause of his sufferings. God’s part in them was to prove Job to be his faithful servant, in opposition to Satan’s allegations. Believers unable to judge correctly of God’s dealings from appearances. “Blind unbelief is sure to err,” &c. Satan’s object to get Job and every child of God to think as hardly of God as possible. God might visit the sins of youth on our riper years. Such sins deserving punishment, and requiring to be repented of in order to be forgiven. David remembered them, and besought God not to do so (Psa_25:7). “Foolishness bound up in the heart of a child.” The thoughts of man’s heart evil from his youth. The natural effects of youthful sins sometimes experienced in maturer years. Job, conscious at least of youthful sins, supposes he must now be suffering the punishment of them. Yet Job’s youth eminently virtuous and pious (ch. Job_31:1; Job_31:18). The sins of youth as well as of manhood atoned for by a Saviour’s blood (Isa_53:6). The bitterness of sin’s punishment experienced by the Divine Surety on the cross (Mat_27:24).—
(2) That he was treated ignominiously as the vilest criminal (Job_13:27). “Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks.” These a kind of clog, or fetter. Often a public, always a painful and ignominious punishment, and the severest restraint on personal liberty. Inflicted on Jeremiah in the gate, or most public place of the city (Jer_20:2); and on Paul and Silas in the dungeon at Phillippi (Act_16:24). Job’s case appeared to him to resemble this.—“And lookest narrowly into all my paths”—either with the view of punishing, or of preventing escape. Job appeared to be watched as by a spy, or guarded as by a sentinel. Similar thought, ch. Job_7:12; Job_7:20. His temptation common to believers. “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense.” God’s true character and dealings described by the prophet (Mic_7:18-19).—“Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet”—either—(a) as tracking his steps with a view to punishment; or (b) as marking him as a criminal or runaway slave with branded feet; or (c) as hemming in his path and forbidding escape. The flesh mistakes friends for foes. In the battle of Alma men fighting in the dark fired on their own countrymen. Satan’s doings often mistaken for God’s, and God mistaken for a foe.—
(3) That his lot was to pine away and perish (Job_13:28). “And he as a rotten thing consumeth (or, ‘and the same,’ viz., the same unhappy culprit, meaning himself—a poetical and tragical change of the person, as better indicating his sense of his vile condition), as a garment that is moth-eaten.” The humbling comparison of himself to worm-eaten wood, or to moth-eaten clothes, suggested by his bodily condition. The latter a common poetical figure for gradual but sure destruction. Applied to the body under disease (Psa_39:11); to men in general (Isa_50:9). The present verse closely connected with the following chapter, and forming a point of transition to it. Job’s condition as frail and dying a plea with God for pity and forbearance. The plea remembered in regard to Israel (Psa_78:39); in regard to men in general (Psa_103:13-14; Isa_57:16). God’s mercy pities men’s persons while his justice punishes their sins. Hence the gracious provision of a Substitute (Isa_53:6).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The object of the writer of the book of…
Job 13:15
The object of the writer of the book of Job is to discuss a question which, from its interest no less than its obscurity, has been the subject of debate and anxiety in all ages: What is the precise connection between sin and suffering?—a question which loses itself in turn in the still more mysterious inquiry, How could a God of love permit the existence of evil?
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I. It was a doctrine of that age and country (a doctrine not without an element of truth, and one naturally growing up in a primitive form of life) that God proportioned a man’s sufferings to the heinousness of his personal transgressions. If this doctrine were true in the case of Job, it plainly proved that he was a perfect monster of iniquity. But the author has already allowed us to see that this is not the fact, and therefore we must look upon the case of Job as a conclusive refutation of the popular Arabian theory.
II. Job’s friends turn about everywhere within the narrow circle of their original syllogism, Personal suffering is the punishment of personal sin. Job suffers; therefore he has sinned. The doctrine is passed through different minds—through that of Eliphaz, the grave and dignified patriarchal chieftain, the man of practical wisdom and large charity; through that of Bildad, the man of precedent and tradition, distrustful of talent and apprehensive of change; through that of Zophar, the passionate and unreasoning conservative, narrow in his conceptions, bitter, and sometimes even coarse and offensive, in his invective. The minds are different, but the doctrine is the same. It is out of the terrible struggle thus produced in the heart of Job, as he storms forth for light and comfort out of this prison of condemnation, that the life and sufferings of the patriarch yield to us their instruction. Feeling out in the darkness, he discovers three particulars with respect to which it has become matter of imperative necessity that he shall get new light. (1) As to the meaning of human suffering. Job knew, not only through the teaching of his own experience, but through observation of the course of the world, that it was not only the guilty, but far more frequently the helpless, who suffered; it was not only the righteous, but very frequently at least the notoriously wicked, who prospered. Job urged these facts with a point and force which ought to have extorted concession from his adversaries. (2) As to the duration of human existence. Out of the dark night of Job’s sorrow, there shone forth for him the bright dayspring of immortality. (3) As to the true character of God. In the disorder and divergence of his thoughts there would seem almost to arise for him the image of two Gods: the God of the old time and the God of the new, a duality involving that seeming contradiction between justice and love which only the sacrifice of the Cross could abolish. Hence there follows, from this peculiarity in his spiritual position, that striking resemblance between Job and the suffering Messiah which a man must almost be blind to overlook. By throwing on the type the light of the antitype we see the great lesson of Job’s life, that God’s justice is an attribute not merely which doles out gifts to the good, but which seeks to transform all men into its own likeness. Justice going forth in the message of the Cross and working in men the remorse of a just hatred of sin—that is the redeeming justice of our God and Father in Christ Jesus.
Bishop Moorhouse, Oxford Lent Sermons, 1869, p. 151.
I. The first trials by which God would win us back to Himself are often not the severest. Near as they touch us, they are most often without us. They reach not the soul’s inmost self. God’s very chastisement is a token to the soul that it is not abandoned.
II. Deeper and more difficult far are those sorrows wherewith God afflicts the very soul herself and in divers ways "makes her to possess her former iniquities." Manifold are those clouds whereby God hides for the time the brightness of His presence; yet one character they have in common, that the soul can hardly believe itself in a state of grace.
III. Faint not, weary soul, but trust. If thou canst not hope, act as thou wouldst if thou didst hope. Without Him thou couldst not even hate thy sin. Hatred of what in thyself is contrary to God is love of God. If thou canst not love with the affections, love with the will, or will to love. If thou canst not love as thou wouldst, do what thou canst. If thy heart seems to have died within thee, cleave to God with the understanding.
IV. "If He slay me, I will trust in Him." Not "although" only, but because He slayeth me. It is life to be touched by the hand of God; to be slain is, through the Cross of Christ, the pledge of the resurrection.
E. B. Pusey, Occasional Sermons, p. 41.
I. What did Job mean when he said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him"? (1) Trust in God is built on acquaintance with God. (2) Trust in God is begotten of belief in the representations which are given of God, and of faith in the promises of God. (3) Trust in God is a fruit of reconciliation with God. (4) Trust in God involves the quiet assurance that God will be all that He promises to be, and that He will do all that He engages to do, and that in giving and withholding He will do that which is perfectly kind and right.
II. We may safely copy this most patient of men, and for the following reasons: (1) God does not afflict willingly; (2) God has not exhausted Himself by any former deliverance; (3) in all that affects His saints God takes a living and loving interest; (4) circumstances can never become mysterious, or complicated, or unmanageable to God; (5) God has in time past slain His saints and yet delivered them.
III. We learn from Job (1) that it is well sometimes to imagine the heaviest possible affliction happening to us; (2) that the perfect work of patience is the working of patience to the uttermost; (3) that the extreme of trial should call forth the perfection of trust; (4) that the spirit of trust is the spirit of endurance; (5) that true trust respects all events and all Divine dispensations.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 4th series, No. 8.
References: Job 13:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1244; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 56; J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 117; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 291; F. E. Paget, Sermons on the Duties of Daily Life, p. 187. Job 13:22.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1255.
Job 13:23
There is a sense in which every one knows that he is a sinner. Every one admits it, just as he admits any abstract Scriptural truth. But a man of the world looks upon sin rather in its relation to himself and its relation to other people than in its relation to God—how it is ungrateful to God, how it grieves God, how it wounds Christ, how it offends the Holy Ghost. Neither does he measure sin by its true measurement, that whatever has not a pious motive, whatever does not give honour to God, whatever comes short of the glory of God, is sin. The practical question for us is this: How is the knowledge of sin to be attained?
I. It is the province of the Holy Ghost. He, and He alone, ever shows a man his sins. Therefore Christ spoke of it as the Spirit’s first great office. "When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin."
II. By the Law is the knowledge of sin. The Law becomes the schoolmaster, which, convincing us of sin, leads, or rather drives, us to Christ.
III. The Gospel of Jesus Christ convinces us of sin. We often learn the extent of an evil by the intensity of the remedy which is used to relieve it. What a remedy was the death of the Son of God! What an unutterable evil then sin must be!
IV. There is a knowledge of sin by sin itself. Very frequently a man is first taught to read himself by one of his deeper falls. In order to know sin, we must (1) pray for more light to be thrown on our dark hearts; (2) leave the cold, uninfluential generalities about sin, and deal with some particular sin that has power over ourselves; (3) think of the holiness of God till all that is unlike Him begins to look dark; (4) believe in the love of Jesus to us: realise, if it be only in the smallest degree, that there is a power in Him, and that power is for us.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 6th series, p. 9.
References: Job 13:23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 336; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 189; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 151. Job 13:24.—T. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. i., p. 315. Job 13:24, Job 13:25.—R. Allen Davies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 225. Job 13:26.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 129; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 97. Job 14:4.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 37.
Job 13:26
I. Shadows are suffered to fall on us, and to overcast a while the brightness of God’s firmament, partly to show us what hell is, and to make us flee from it.
II. These afflictions, which are such a fiery trial to some of us, are in truth too often the shadows of our former sins.
III. We must bear in mind that these are departing shadows if only we are doing truth now and drawing nigh to Him who illuminates us with the brightness of His presence.
IV. Continuance in the good fight of faith, however overclouded for a time, "shall bring a man peace at the last."
G. E. Jelf, Make up for Lost Time, p. 233.
References: Job 14:1.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 70. Job 14:1, Job 14:2.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 3rd series, p. 130. Job 14:4.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 124. Job 14:10.—D. G. Watt, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 260. Job 14:13-15.—G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons, 2nd series, p. 207.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Job's Third Speech (continued)
Job's Third Speech (continued)
1-12. Job claims to understand as much about God as the friends. He rejects their opinion as to the cause of his troubles, and regards it as an attempt to curry favour with God.
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1. The v. is in close connexion with Job 12. Eye refers to Job_12:7-8, ear to Job_12:13.: cp. Job_12:11
3. Surely] rather, 'but.' Job seeks an explanation from God, not from man.
4. Forgers] better, 'plasterers,' i.e. they plaster their lies over God's misgovernment and hide its evils.
7, 8. 'Does God require His actions to be defended by their untruths and servile flattery?' The friends condemned Job unjustly in order to uphold God's justice. They were special pleaders for God, because they wanted to curry favour with Him.
8, 10. Accept] RV 'respect.' The phrase is used of a judge who shows partiality. Considerations of self-interest lead them to give God their verdict and not Job.
9. 'Do they think they can deceive God with their partiality? He penetrates their cowardly motives.'
10. Job believes that God will not approve of those who lie for Him, an assertion of God's righteousness in remarkable contrast to the assertions of His unrighteousness.
12. RV 'Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your defences are defences of clay.' Job regards their view as worthless, and their arguments such as any one could refute.
13-22. He turns from man, and boldly pleads his cause with God.
14, 15. Render, with a slight alteration, 'I will take my flesh in my teeth and I will put my life in my hand (be daring). Lo, he will slay me: I have no hope, but I will maintain my words before him.' The meaning of the phrase 'to take the flesh in the teeth' is uncertain. Probably it signifies just the same as to 'put the life in the hand,' which means to dare the uttermost peril. Job is resolved to speak out, though he feels that God will kill him for doing it.
16. He] RV 'This.' The v. may mean that God would pardon his boldness but not a false confession of sin: see Job_42:7.
18. Ordered my cause] i.e. prepared his defence.
19. Plead with] RV 'contend with': to prove him a sinner. For now, etc.] RV 'For now shall I hold my peace and give up the ghost': i.e. if his innocence were disputed. Note how in prospect of his case coming into court Job's spirits rise. He is so certain of his innocence that he cannot believe that it can help being established. The axiom on which this rests is his conviction of God's righteousness, once more a strange contrast to his charges against Him.
20, 21. Job begs that God will free him from the sense of terror which he naturally feels. Thy dread] i.e. dread of Thee.
23-28. He seeks to know his sins, and the reasons of God's treatment.
26. Possess] RV 'inherit.' Job thinks he must be suffering for his early follies.
27. Stocks] rather, 'clog,' to prevent slaves escaping. Thou settest, etc] lit. 'Thou dost make a mark upon the roots of my feet,' perhaps, i.e. make them sore with the clog upon them.
28. And he, etc.] RV 'Though I am like a rotten thing that consumeth'; an allusion to his miserable state.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 13 Job Defends God Against the Suspicion of Arbitrariness
Job Defends God Against the Suspicion of Arbitrariness
v. 1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it, gotten the knowledge for itself, namely, concerning all that had been set forth in the last chapter regarding the wisdom and omnipotence of God.
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v. 2. What ye know, the same do I know also; I am not inferior unto you; Job in no way stood behind or beneath his friends in the proper understanding of the Lord’s attributes, 12:3.
v. 3. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, that is, in spite of the fact that Job had this knowledge and in view of the fact that it seemed folly to speak to his friends in their present attitude of antagonism, while they paraded their knowledge of God in order to confound Job, and I desire to reason with God, pleading with Him in defense of himself, confidently hoping for a vindication.
v. 4. But ye are forgers of lies, literally, "daubers, smearers, of lies," such as invented falsehoods to gain their ends. Ye are all physicians of no value, miserable quacks, who were entirely unfit and incapable of applying the proper remedy to the wounds of Job.
v. 5. Oh, that ye would altogether hold your peace! He would much prefer their saying nothing at all than to have them make matters worse by their bungling talk. And it should be your wisdom; they would then not only have had a higher reputation for wisdom, but would also have come nearer to the solution of Job’s difficulty.
v. 6. Hear now my reasoning, his apology or defense of himself, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips, as he, in vindicating himself, brought charges against them.
v. 7. Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for Him? Were they really of the opinion that they must act in favor of God by telling lies and by using deceit?
v. 8. Will ye accept His person? That is, would they show preference for His countenance, partiality for His person? Will ye contend for God, acting the part of God’s advocates or lawyers? Their actions seemed to indicate that such was their intention.
v. 9. Is it good that He should search you out? Did they honestly believe that it would be well with them, that they would be safe, if He would really go to the bottom of things and search out their motives? Or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock Him? Were they under the delusion that they could deceive God, hide from Him the real disposition and sentiment of their hearts?
v. 10. He will surely reprove you, most emphatically denouncing them, if ye do secretly accept persons, showing partiality, the motive driving them being not honest conviction, but selfish interest.
v. 11. Shall not His excellency, the display of God’s exalted majesty, make you afraid and His dread fall upon you? The dread of God as the great Judge should have deterred them from their course of action in employing dishonest means against Him.
v. 12. Your remembrances are like unto ashes, literally, "your axioms, proverbs, or maxims are proverbs of ashes," for such they would become when God would set out to judge and punish them, your bodies to bodies of clay, their bulwarks, their breastworks, of reasoning upon which they relied would prove frail mud, altogether unreliable, incapable of resistance. Note that there is an occasional hint of the final outcome of the matter and the rebuke of Job’s friends.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 26 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Job continues to speak to his friends.
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See
"Look" or "Listen" or "Pay attention to what I am about to tell you"
my eye has seen all this
Job referred to himself as his eye since it is with his eyes that he saw these things. AT: "I have seen all this" (See: Synecdoche)
my ear has heard and understood it
Job referred to himself as his ear since it is with his ears that he heard these things. AT: "I have heard and understood it" (See: Synecdoche)
What you know, the same I also know
"What you know, I also know" or "I know as much as you"
translationWords
know
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 7, 12, 20, 22, 24, 25 13:1-2 Job appealed to experience, as his comforters had…
13:1-2 Job appealed to experience, as his comforters had done (3:12-17; 5:2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.