CHAP. XIII. Job reproves his friends for their prejudice: he professes his confidence in God, and entreats to know of him why he hides his face from him, and holds him for an enemy. Before Christ 1645. read more
Job 13:4. Physicians of no value— Empty boasters: men who put on airs of great consequence, though in reality they were nothing. See Heath. read more
Job 13:8. Will ye contend for God— The Hebrew for contend is a judicial term, and oftentimes used for putting a sentence in execution. Of this there is a particular instance in the case of Gideon, who was demanded by the men of his city to be put to death for casting down the altar of Baal, Judges 6:31.; where, though our translators render it plead, the sense necessarily requires it to be rendered execute vengeance; for the question was, not about pleading, but instantaneously putting to... read more
Job 13:9. Is it good, &c.— Is it right for you to pay false adulation to him? Houbigant; who observes, that the word adulate, in this clause, properly corresponds with mock in the next. read more
Job 13:11-12. Shall not his excellency, &c.— His majesty shall wholly confound you, and his terror shall fall upon you; Job 13:12. Your boasting shall be like unto dust; your pride like a heap of sand, Job 13:13. Hear me in silence and I will speak; I will deliver that which hath been known to me. Houbigant. Heath renders the 12th verse, Are not your lessons empty proverbs? Your high-flown speeches, what are they, but heaps of dung? Job refers, says he, to those general maxims of the course... read more
Job 13:14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, &c.?— That is, "You ask me, why I should consider my case as thus desperate? (for that is the meaning of these phrases.) Why should you be thus slow to believe that God will deliver you out of your troubles? This looks as if you were conscious of some wickedness rendering you unworthy of such a deliverance." Job answers to this charge immediately: "It is not the want of a due hope or trust in God, occasioned by any wickedness whereof I am... read more
Job 13:15. Though he slay me, &c.— It is impossible to understand this of a temporal deliverance; for how should a man hope for this, though he were slain? This passage, according to another reading, is, "Lo, he will kill; I will not hope; nevertheless, I will argue mine own ways, or plead mine own cause before him. He also shall be my salvation, &c." It is plain that Job here despairs of life, and yet hopes for salvation; which, therefore, must necessarily be understood of a future... read more
Job 13:22. Then call thou— The word call is here a judicial term, and imports the declaring the accusation. This, in our law, is termed arraigning the criminal. The whole verse is of the same kind. Heath. read more
Job 13:24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, &c.?— This expression, among some others, has been charged upon Job by a learned writer as very improper and unbecoming. Now, though we might admit that there is something faulty in the expostulation, yet it is very much alleviated by those expressions of humility and self-abasement which immediately precede and follow it. Read the 23rd and 25th verses. Scarcely ever were the feelings of the human heart, burdened with such a load of grief,... read more
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Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Job 13:20
JOB'S EARNEST PRAYER TO GOD TO KNOW WHAT HIS SIN IS"Only do not two things unto me;Then will I not hide myself from thy face:Withdraw thy hand far from me;And let not thy terror make me afraid.Then call thou, and I will answer;Or let me speak, and answer thou me.How many are mine iniquities and sins?Make me to know my transgression and my sin.Wherefore hidest thou thy face,And holdest me for thine enemy?Wilt thou harrass a driven leaf?And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?For thou writest bitter... read more