Is it good that he should search you out? - Would it be to your credit if God should try your hearts, and uncover the motives of your conduct? Were you tried as I am, how would you appear? Do ye so mock him? - Do ye think that you can deceive him; and by flattering speeches bring him to your terms, as you would bring an undiscerning, empty mortal, like yourselves? read more
He will surely reprove you - You may expect, not only his disapprobation, but his hot displeasure. read more
His dread fall upon you? - The very apprehension of his wrath is sufficient to crush you to nothing. read more
Your remembrances are like unto ashes - Your memorable sayings are proverbs of dust. This is properly the meaning of the original: אפר משלי זכרניכם zichroneycem mishley epher . This he speaks in reference to the ancient and reputedly wise sayings which they had so copiously quoted against him. Your bodies to bodies of clay - This clause is variously translated: Your swelling heaps are swelling heaps of mire. That is, Your high-flown speeches are dark, involved, and incoherent; they... read more
Hold your peace - You have perverted righteousness and truth, and your pleadings are totally irrelevant to the case; you have traveled out of the road; you have left law and justice behind you; it is high time that you should have done. Let come on me what will - I will now defend myself against you, and leave the cause to its issue. read more
Correction of the friends. I. TRANSITION IN JOB 'S ADDRESS . ( Job 13:1-3 .). 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" ( 1 John 1:1 ). And in no particular is their knowledge, in... read more
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... read more
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... read more
The second section of Job's argument is prefaced, like the first ( Job 12:2-5 ), with a complaint with respect to the conduct of his opponents. He taxes them with the fabrication of lies (verse 4), with want of skill as physicians of souls (verse 4), with vindicating God by reasonings in which they do not themselves believe (verses 7, 8), and consequently with really mocking him (verse 9). Having warned them that they are more likely to offend God than to please him by such arguments as... read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 13:8
Will ye accept his person? - Do you think to act by him as you would by a mortal; and, by telling lies in his favor, attempt to conciliate his esteem? read more