Job 13:13

"Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak;

And let come on me what will.

Wherefore should I take my flesh in my teeth,

And put my life in my hand?

Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope:

Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him.

This also shall be my salvation,

That a godless man shall not come before him.

Hear diligently my speech,

And let my declaration be in your ears.

Behold, now I have set my cause in order;

I know that I am righteous.

Who is he that will contend with me?

For then would I hold my peace, and give up the ghost."

"Hold thy peace, and let me speak" (Job 13:13). From this it appears that Job's friends had attempted to renew their accusations, but that Job interrupted them, told them to shut up, and let him speak.

"Why should I take my flesh in my teeth" (Job 13:14). "The meaning of these words can only be guessed at."[2] Job may have meant to ask, "Why should I place my life in jeopardy by affirming a falsehood in my claim to be righteous."

"Behold, he will slay me ... nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him"" (Job 13:15). The rendition before us is clumsy, awkward and ineffective. The KJV rendered the passage thus: "THOUGH HE SLAY ME; YET WILL I TRUST HIM; BUT I WILL MAINTAIN MINE OWN WAYS BEFORE HIM." Yes, we admit that a slight emendation by the Masoretes entered into this rendition,[3] (and the radical critics don't like that); and yet they (the critics) have made hundreds of emendations of their own, far more radical than the one here. The KJV is by far the preferable translation of this verse; and it is backed up by the Douay Version and the new Easy-to-Read Version of the Bible by the World Bible Translation Center. This is the quintessence of Biblical faith, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." We reject as totally unjustified the critical presumption that they may emend any passage they please to make it conform to their theory, but refuse to allow such an emendation as the one here that gives us one of the great passages in the whole Bible.

"This also shall be my salvation" (Job 13:16). "The fact that Job can conscientiously maintain his integrity before God is his ground of hope that he will eventually enjoy salvation; the reason behind this hope lies in Job's conviction that God knows and will publish his innocence, and that he knows that a godless man would not thus of his own accord approach God to argue for his integrity."[4]

"I know that I am righteous" (Job 13:18). Once more, Job thundered this claim in the ears of his friends; and, against their objections to his claim, Job had already called them liars with nothing but proverbs of ashes to offer in rebuttal (Job 13:4,12).

"Who is he that will contend with me" (Job 13:19)? This was an open invitation for his critical `comforters' to name his sins, point out his wickedness; upon which, if they did so, Job promised to hold his peace and give up the ghost.