Deeper Commentary
Job 13:1 Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and
understood it- This may be in direct reference to what Job has just
said in Job 12, he is saying that he has worked these things out by his own
reflections, and this has led him to an understanding which is no less valid
than that of the friends. Job would later confess that he has
indeed heard of God by the hearing of the ear; but only at the end did he
join the dots, to the point where he could say that "now
my eye
sees You" (Job 42:5).
Job 13:2 What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you-
The way Job reasons suggests he had the same theology as the friends- that
sin leads to punishment in this life, and obedience leads to blessing. And
here he says as much. As noted
on :1, Job is not saying that his knowledge or understanding is identical to
that of the friends, but rather that his path to knowledge is no less valid
than theirs. "Inferior" is better 'to fall down'. Job may mean that he is
not falling down before them, but before God. For he uses the same word in
:11 to urge the friends to fall down ['be inferior to'] God, rather than
assuming they know His game plan and thereby lifting themselves up above
Him.
Job 13:3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with
God- Job has heard their demand that he turn to God, and he says that
indeed he wishes to do so. But he implies that God will not speak to him.
All this builds up towards the final wonder of God Himself appearing and
speaking at the end of the book. Job here and so often wants his
day in court (see on Job 5:1), to have his side heard. But he doesn't get it. And he is
driven to repent for even wanting it. This 'having your day in court' is
so important to people in our age. But we have no case at all, no matter
how insistent we are that our version of justice is on our side, no matter
how persuaded we are that we suffered wrongly and unjustly. We have no
case and no valid complaint. In the bigger picture of things.
Job 13:4 But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value-
Again we see a lesson in how
relationships break down. The friends have argued that sin brings
suffering, and therefore Job has sinned. They were not completely wrong in
thinking that sin does bring down judgment, and God [at that time] did
reward obedience with material blessing. But Job calls them "liars". This
is the wrong category; it is calling people with another theology 'liars'.
Often this is done in small time, small town doctrinal arguments between
immature believers. A strongly held belief is not simply disagreed with,
but it is called a "lie" and therefore the mouth that came out with it is
a "liar". The friends likewise insinuate that Job is a "liar".
"Physicians" is the same word as "make[rs] whole" in Job 5:18: "He injures,
and His hands make whole". His disillusion with the members of his religion,
his brethren, led him to seek the more earnestly to God as the only one
whose hands could "make whole" (s.w. "physician").
Job 13:5 Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise-
This was true, but Job himself was not being silent. At the end, he puts
his hand upon his mouth and is silent (Job 40:4). When Job finally lays
his hand upon his mouth, he is only doing
what he had earlier told the friends to do in recognition of their folly
(Job 13:5; 21:5). Through the pain and irritation of their speeches, Job
came to value and appreciate the need for silence before God. But it was
only when personally confronted by God at the end that he realizes that he
too had spoken too much and he repents of that in silence.
Job 13:6 Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips-
These appeals to hear and listen may not be simply asking them to hear his
words; they may be an appeal to them to hear and repent. This desire for
their repentance and understanding builds up within Job as the speeches
progress. And again, this is preparing him for the Lord's final request to
him- to pray for the friends and bring about their salvation (Job 42:8).
Job 13:7 Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for Him?-
LXX "Do ye not speak before the Lord...", another hint that the friends were
represented by the Satan figure of the prologue, who likewise appeared
"before the Lord". Job warns them as many need warning today- that they were
wrong to express their own gut feelings and assumptions in the name of
God, as if they were talking on His behalf. Job differs from them in that
he makes no claim to be speaking by Divine inspiration; he is simply
bemoaning his lot and trying to reason through it, and that record of his
words is noted down in the drama by an inspired writer.
Job 13:8 Will you show partiality to Him?-
Perhaps the idea is that
they were acting as if God were in the dock, and they were being generous
to Him in their judgment of Him.
Will you contend for God?- God was not contending with Job through the friends as His representatives. The wonder of the final appearance of God is that He Himself appears and contends directly, not through any representatives such as the friends claimed to be.
Job 13:9 Is it good that He should search you out? Or as one deceives a man,
will you deceive Him?- The idea seems to be that if God searched out
the friends, they would have to try to deceive Him, lest He find the truth
about them. But Job later realizes that God does indeed search out all
things (s.w. Job 28:27). He begins here by saying that if He were
to search things out, He would not find a nice scene in the hearts of the
friends. But Job moves on to realize that indeed this is what God is
doing, on a cosmic scale- searching out all things.
Job 13:10 He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality-
"Reprove" is a legal term, used for legal 'pleading' in court (s.w. Job
16:21; 40:2). Job clearly considers the friends to be guilty, and we are
set up to expect that therefore God is going to open a legal case against
the friends. And this is exactly what happens when God finally appears at
the end of the book.
Job 13:11 Shall not His majesty make you afraid, and His dread fall on
you?- "Fall" is the same word translated "inferior" in :2:
"I am not inferior to you". Job may mean that he is not falling
down before them, but before God. For he uses the same word in
:11 to urge the friends to fall down ['be inferior to'] God, rather than
assuming they know His game plan and thereby are lifting themselves up
above Him. At the end of the book, as noted on :10, God does appear in
majesty, and they are indeed afraid before Him.
Job 13:12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your defences are
defences of clay-
The memorable sayings and defences are what the friends have said so far, suggesting they were often quoting or alluding to traditional sayings which we may not be able to clearly discern from the text before us.
LXX "And your glorying shall prove in the end to you like ashes, and your body like a body of clay". They were bodies of clay; but only through their humiliation at the end of the book would they appreciate this in reality rather than merely as theory. And we see this happening in the events at the end of the book. And it is so with us today; the mortality of man can never be a mere theological proposition. It must be believed and felt, with an appropriate humility, rather than having to be reminded of it through Divine humiliation.
Job 13:13 Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what
will-
Job now speaks with the reckless bravado of a drunk man, saying that he will speak his case before God come what may, he will put his life in his hand to argue with God (:14), and even though he is sure God will slay him for this, he will still wait [not "trust"] for some future point when somehow he will be justified and will prove God wrong (:15).
LXX "Be silent, that I may speak, and cease from mine anger". In this case Job is wrongly thinking that his anger is legitimate because once he has blown it all out, he will then be silent. This was wrong, because at the end of the book he lays his hand on his mouth and recognizes that he has spoken wrongly. We too can falsely justify sin or unwise talking on the basis that once we've done it, we will then somehow stop being angry and get over our problem.
Job 13:14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my
hand?- The simple sense is as in GNB "I am ready to risk my life".
That risk of life was in order to justify himself before God (:15). This
was demonstrated at the end as being indeed wrong and punishable by death.
Job did indeed risk his life, and was saved from condemnation by grace
alone. However, taking "my flesh in my teeth" may be a figure drawn from a
wild beast taking its prey in its teeth and carrying it off to safety;
meaning therefore 'Why should I seek anxiously to preserve my life?'.
Job 13:15 Even if He slays me, still I will trust in Him-
Job is to be recognized [at least at this point] for realizing that we serve God for nothing, because we are His, and not in view of any personal reward- neither in this life nor beyond. Should we be condemned at judgment day, our attitude should be 'Thank You for the honour of having served You'. Even though God counts him as His enemy, even if God slays him, he will still trust Him (Job 13:15,24). This is trust, relationship, in the face of every reason to give it up; and in the face of a total lack of explanation from God as to why. In the face of every human cry of injustice, deprivation of legitimate rights etc.
In the context, however, Job is
saying that he is going to take God to court, even if he dies. Even if God
slays him for doing so, he will "wait" ['trust'] for some future day, when
he would defend his ways before God, to God's face (:15). His idea of some
future judgment day is developing, although always, immediately after
these flashes of insight, he returns to his wrong thinking. In this case,
saying that even at that future meeting, he will justify his ways before
God.
The language of ‘slaying’ takes
us back to the Mosaic commands about how a ‘slayer’ of a man might be
killed by the ‘avenger of blood’. Job saw God as slaying him; yet he also
sees God as the ‘witness’ in the case (Job 16:19), and the avenger of
Job’s blood (Job 19:25). Job even asks God to not let the earth cover his
blood, so that God as the avenger of Job’s blood may avenge Job’s death
(Job 16:18). Job does
not see ‘Satan’ as his slayer, and God as the
avenger of his blood. Instead Job – in a quite breathtaking set of
associations – sees God in all these things: the slayer, the legal witness
to the slayer, the avenger of blood, and the One who will enforce the
doing of justice in this case, the One who will not let the earth cover
Job’s blood. If Job really believed in a superhuman Satan, in Satan as the
bad guy and God as the avenger of the injustice, he surely would’ve
expressed himself differently. As Job imagines God as it were taking
vengeance on Himself, so he came to portray for all time the way that evil
and good are indeed both ultimately from God.
Job 13:16 This also shall be my salvation-
Maybe we are to understand
this as Job saying that if only he could justify his ways before God
(:15), he would have to be saved; he would justify his ways "before Him"
in that a Godless man cannot come "before Him". We see again Job moving on
from his idea that there is no afterlife. He is now talking of
'salvation', however he understood that.
LXX "And this shall turn to me for salvation". See on Phil. 1:19, where this is quoted by Paul. The referent of "this..." is unclear. It could be Job's enduring hope that he would be saved finally, despite life not working out for him in this life (see on :15). This would fit the context in which Paul quotes this in Phil. 1:19.
In that a Godless man shall not come before Him- Job concludes at this point that he will finally be saved, even though God is apparently against him in this life. And he concludes that therefore he must be Godly and not Godless, seeing no Godless man would be accepted "before Him" finally. Job may be making an oblique reference to how the friends as the "sons of God" came "before Him" in worship (Job 1:6); but Job implies they would not ultimately do this at the last day. As it happened, Job's intercession for them "before Him" was to mean that they did.
"Godless" is 'hypocrite', the same word used by Bildad when he claims that Job is a hypocrite and therefore his hope has come to an end (Job 8:13).
Job 13:17 Hear diligently my speech. Let my declaration be in Your ears-
This may not merely be an appeal for them to pay attention to what he is
saying; but rather an appeal for them to "hear" him and repent, taking his
appeal deeply within themselves.
Job 13:18 See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am
righteous- Job had judged himself, setting in order his legal case
["cause"], but declaring himself righteous (Job 13:8). By Job 23:4, Job is
realizing that he needs to set his case in order before God; but he can't
find God, or get God to engage in this game of judgment. He needed the
final appearance of God at the end of the book to review his case, and
declare that he is in fact wrong and condemned. But by grace, God will
count him as right. He was prepared for this by Elihu's speech in Job
37:19: "Teach us what we shall tell Him, for we can’t make our case by
reason of darkness". "Make our case" is s.w. "set my cause in order".
Job 13:19 Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my
peace and give up the spirit- Job is challenging anyone to come
forward and contend with him in court by proving him wrong. If they did,
then he would be silent ["hold my peace"] and willingly die. This of
course is exactly what happens at the end. God does contend with Job, and
he is proven guilty. He lays his hand upon mouth in silence (Job 40:4),
and we can deduce from his challenge here that he wanted to die. He saw
then saved from that position by grace alone. The connection with the
exiles is in Is. 50:8, where a similarly convicted Israel would be
justified by Divine grace to the point they could again challenge any to
convict them of sin, seeing that "He is near that justifies me".
O
Job 13:20 Only don’t do two things to me; then I will not hide myself from
Your face- This is so arrogant, to think that he could himself from
God. The allusion is to Adam hiding in Eden from God. Job seeks a
guarantee from God that he will not be condemned, and then says he will
agree to respond to God's call (:22)- another allusion to Adam, who was
'called' to account by God after his sin. It would appear that Job was recognizing that he had sinned, that he knew that the sense of spiritual limbo he was in
paralleled Adam's hiding from God in Eden, but that he would only respond to God's call and come out of hiding to confess his sin as he knew God wanted him to, if God withdrew His hand- i.e. relieved him of the immediate trials he was then experiencing. Thus Job was trying to barter with God- wanting Him to withdraw the trials in return for Job making the confession which he knew God wanted. See on
Job 10:9; 9:17.
Job 13:21 withdraw Your hand far from me- From here to the end of the chapter could be addressed to God, or to the friends. If the latter, then it would appear that Job considers the friends guilty for bringing his sufferings upon him. This would confirm the connection suggested between the friends and the Satan figure. For as soon as Satan is as it were off the stage, the friends appear. See on :20.
And don’t let Your terror make me afraid- Job repeats this fear in Job 9:34, and Elihu alludes to it when he uses the same phrase in assuring Job that his terror will not make Job afraid (Job 33:7). The terror is perhaps "the terror of the Lord", the fear of condemnation at the last day (so Paul uses the phrase, 2 Cor. 5:11). That terror should "persuade men" to accept grace, Paul argues. To have that terror unexperienced by men would mean they had no persuasion toward grace.
Job 13:22 Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and You answer
me- See on :20. In the end, God does call Job; and he lays his hand
upon his mouth in silence. For he has no answer, nor does he desire to
speak. For God has already answered him. This is legal language
(see on :3): "Then make a plea and I will certainly be a respondent; or
let me make a charge and you reply to me!". This is an inappropriate way
to talk to Almighty God. Job allows himself to be driven to this by his
misplaced desire for justice and to have his situation 'heard'. God's
responses do not 'hear' his situation but provide another perspective
altogether. But for now, Job is eager to put God in the dock. Possibly
Paul has this in view when he says that God will always overcome when He
is put in the dock and judged (Rom. 3:4). But the allusion is also to his
fantasy of a restored Eden when God would call him as He called Adam, and
Job could answer with a clear conscience, knowing he had nothing to be
ashamed of and had not sinned; see on Job 14:15.
Job 13:23 How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my
disobedience and my sin-
Job goes on to complain that God is holding against him the sins of his youth (:26); so here he must mean that he hasn't done any really big sin which justified his suffering. He fails to realize that the passage of time is not atonement for sin; and he fails to learn the lesson of Adam and Eve, that 'just' one sin leads to eternal judgment and consequence, even if committed [as in Adam's case] in immaturity.
This seems an arrogant denial of sinfulness and a false accusation of God. Job, like the friends, cannot understand suffering as having any reason apart from sin. And he indignantly insists that he has not sinned. This insistence upon never moving beyond the paradigm whereby suffering reflects sin led Job to thereby falsely accuse God. And we can so easily do the same.
Job 13:24 Why do You hide Your face, and hold me for Your enemy?-
Quite possibly Job is making a play on words, using the similarity between
iyyob
(Job) and
oyeb (enemy). These two words are
anagrams in Hebrew. Rearrange 'Job' and you get 'enemy'. He really thinks
that God hates Job and thinks Job is His enemy. If only he knew the
prologue... and had paid less subconscious attention to the position of
the friends, that his sufferings meant that God must hate him.
Job feels that God sees him as enemy: “How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my transgression and sin! Why do You hide Your face? Why do You treat me as Your enemy?" (Job 13:23,24). God didn't at all see him that way. And all the more in our case, we who were enemies are now reconciled by the death of God's son, God is not our enemy, and is not hiding from us but rather revealing His glory to us, more and more each day, in the face of Jesus Christ. Likewise Job's desire "conceal me until Your anger relents” (:13) has been met in the Lord Jesus, through whom we have been saved from God's wrath. Indeed, all these aspects of God's wrath that Job so fears recur in Romans and other Pauline writings; and every one of them has been resolved in the Lord's death.
Job could appear to oscillate wildly
in his positions, possibly due to his post traumatic stress. He argues his
total innocence, and then admits he is a sinner and has sins of youth as
well. He considers God a sadist and narcissist, and yet also speaks of how
great God is and how man has no valid complaint against Him. He states
that man has no afterlife, this life is all there is, and the righteous
are blessed and the sinners are cursed- and then he speaks of finally
meeting God. He knows there is no mediator between God and himself; but he
fantasizes about having one. That fantasy is true in the Lord Jesus. He
says on one hand that he wants a day in court with God, and if he can find
a decent judge, then he will win the case against God; and then he says
that all such ideas of getting God in the dock are futile because God is
God and he is only a man. I suggest that reading and re-reading Job's
speeches reveals that he was not in fact oscillating between positions.
Rather does he hold certain base truths, many of which are wrong- and then
he briefly fantasizes about some 'other' scenario, and then returns to his
baseline position. His baseline position was that sin brings suffering,
and he tells the friends that of course he agrees with them on this, he
knows what they know and what everyone knows. But he fantasizes about his
being actually totally innocent, and the victim of a horrible God. He
states clearly that he is a sinner and also has sins of youth- but then he
fantasizes about a God who is actually OK with that. He considers God to
be a God of wrath who carefully records all his sins and holds them
against him; and then he fantasizes about God calling to him, as He did to
Adam in Eden, and him being able to respond to God and walk with God,
seeing His face, despite being a sinner. His baseline position is clearly
that there is no afterlife; but he fantasizes about a meeting with God at
some point after death, when all the drama connected with sin, suffering,
justice, "Why?" questions... is over. He knows as a baseline truth that
man can never get God in court nor will God ever answer him- but he
dreams, for a moment, of God in fact answering all Job's many questions.
If you look at all his brief fantasies, three wonderful things are
apparent:
1) We know from the prologue that God actually
thinks Job is wonderful and doesn't consider him a sinner, even though he
has sinned historically and still does; Job's fantasies were in fact
reality at the time, if only Job would know it
2) Paul in Romans does quote the book of Job but
not much. But he alludes to the ideas and problems raised in it,
repeatedly. We in the Lord Jesus are saved from wrath, counted right, sin
is no longer an issue, we who are sinners can in fact walk freely and
joyfully with a God who doesn't consider that any issue in His
relationship with us. Job's fantasies are in fact true and are our lived
experience now.
3) All Job's fantasies, especially of a
resurrection and final, eternally lasting peace with God- will come true
in God's Kingdom. Job's fantasies are in fact the Gospel of the Kingdom of
God.
The implication of the argument is that Job had a right to see God's unhidden face, because God (so Job thinks) cannot convict Job of sin. Cain was hidden from God's face (s.w. Gen. 4:14); Job again feels he is being treated like Cain, with a mark set upon him (:27); when he is innocent. He totally failed to perceive his sinfulness, and was convicted of it only by the revelation of God at the end- whereby, by grace alone, God no longer hid His face but revealed Himself. God hid His face from the exiles (s.w. Dt. 31:17,18; 32:20; Is. 8:17; 54:8; 59:2; 64:7; Jer. 33:5; Ez. 39:23), and again, His apparent hiding of His face from Job was not because Job had sinned but because he was suffering as representative of his people.
Job 13:25 Will You harass a driven leaf? Will You pursue the dry stubble?-
Chaff being driven by the wind is the figure for condemnation by God (Is: 40,24; 41:2; 64:5; Jer. 13:24; Ps. 83:14). Job feels God has condemned him because of his sufferings- he has exactly bought in to the position of the friends, and is ignorant of the Prologue. God thinks Job has been wonderful. But Job thinks God hates him and has condemned him. This so often is the tragic disjuncture between God and those who believe in Him. His demand of God, his fantasy, is to live before God without any sense of present nor future condemnation for his sins; and we have been given that experience in Christ. And Job was already there, according to the prologue.
Job argues that he is so dead and insignificant that God should stop bothering with him. But this is exactly the point- that God is indeed to interested in the dead and insignificant. The leaf driven by the autumn wind and the stubble after harvest being blown away are all pictures of judgment, and again connect Job to the judged people of Judah in captivity.
Job 13:26 For You write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the
iniquities of my youth- see on Job 29:13,14. Job's denial of sin was
to be totally overcome by Yahweh's final appearance. Here he reasons as
many do today: 'I am not a sinner, if I did sin, well that was years ago'.
We make the passage of years a kind of pseudo atonement for sin. But sin
needs atoning, and "just" one sin means death. That is the lesson of Eden.
Job 13:27 You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You
set a mark on the soles of my feet-
He feels that God is watching him too
closely, carefully noting every misstep in life's path. As discussed
above, God saw him as perfect. His failure was to accept the friends'
view, that he must in fact be a terrible sinner. Job complains that although he is associated with Cain
(as in :24), this is not really fair. The mark on him that was a witness wherever he went echoes that which God put on Cain. God's preservation of Cain from death also finds a parallel in Job's feeling that God is preserving him unnaturally (Job 3:21-23; 10:9-15). See on
Job 11:15; 16:17,18; 31:39. The exiles felt as Job- marked, unable to
die, miraculously preserved, and yet imprisoned in stocks. The restoration
prophets have the message of deliverance from the stocks, and paths
directed back to Zion- towards a restoration as Job experienced. But most
of them refused this and remained in Babylon, and those who did return
precluded the fulfilment of the restoration prophecies.
Job 13:28 though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is
moth-eaten- This is parallel in reference to Is. 50:9: "Behold, all
they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up". The "they"
are any possible adversaries who might bring charges against us. This had
particular relevance to all the adversaries to the rebuilding of
Jerusalem. With Yahweh justifying the returned exiles, the court room was
effectively empty of adversaries, all charges were to be seen in the
perspective of God's ultimate justification of His people (see on Is.
50:8). These words are also found in Job 13:28, where it is God who
consumes them, as it were manifesting Himself in a tiny moth. We find the
same ideas in Is. 51:6, where the "they" is the 'heavens and earth' of any
system, be it Persia / Babylon or an unbelieving Jewish system, which is
adversarial to God's people and purpose. The contrast is with how the
clothing of Israel in the wilderness did not "wax old" (s.w. Dt. 8:4;
29:5; Neh. 9:21). The exodus and journey to the promised land is
repeatedly alluded to in Isaiah as a pattern for the exiles to follow in
returning to Judah, and for us in our exodus from this world and journey
towards the Kingdom.
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