Job Chapter 13 review


 



Chapter 13



Job 13:1 KJV  Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it. Job 13:2 KJV  What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.


This is a repeat of the thought in verse 12:3


Job 12:3 KJV  But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?


Job 13:3 KJV  Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.


 Regardless of your words, I would rather reason with God than with you.


Job 13:4 KJV  But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.


‘Forgers’ is confusing to me here. This word is only found three times in the Old Testament.  When I read ‘forgers’ I think of the forging of a piece of metal in a furnace.  In another instance it is translated ‘sewest up’, as in to sew on a patch.  Job restates his frustration, you are as a doctor attempting to treat a disease without a clue to what you are doing.


Job 13:5 KJV  O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.


Job's comment mirroring another Bible verse:


Proverbs 17:28 (KJV) Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.



Job 13:6-13 KJV  Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.  Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?  Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?  Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?  He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.  Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?  Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.  Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.


Job addresses. . . rebukes his ‘friends’, warning them that speaking incorrectly for God risks his wrath.


Job 13:14 KJV  Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?


This verse is difficult to understand.  There is no consensus as to the meaning.  Possibly, why do I torment myself about your opinions of me?


Job 13:15 KJV  Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.


My faith in God is complete.  No matter what He does, my life is in His hands.  Nevertheless, I will give reasons for my actions.


Job 13:16 KJV  He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.


Job places all his hope in God.  He is confident in his own honesty and sincerity.  He is not ungodly, or dealing falsely with God, therefore he dares to come before God with his grievances. 


Job 13:17 KJV  Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears. Job 13:18 KJV  Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.


I have been falsely accused by you, my supposed friends.  Listen closely now to my words, I have put my arguments in a row, and I am confident that they shall stand the test.


Job 13:19 KJV  Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.


Who will bring evidence of my sin?  Who shall convict me that I have done wrong?  If I lose my faith in God and lose my confidence of salvation in Him, I should rather die.


Job 13:20-22 KJV  Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.  Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid. Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.


Job asks two things from God:

  1. That He give Job a pause from his physical afflictions.

  2. That He not terrify him with dreams, and vivid images. 

Job asks that God do these two things before continuing their discourse.


Job 13:23 KJV  How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.


Job never denies having sinned, but he asks what has he done to deserve such severe affliction as he has endured?


Job 13:24 KJV  Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?


Why is there a wall, a separation between us?  God, why are you treating me as you would an enemy?


Job 13:25 KJV  Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?


I am reminded of this passage:


Psalms 1:4 (KJV) The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

 

Job asks God, why is he treating him as a leaf. . . dry stubble. . . chaff, which have no roots, no foundation, which every wind blows as it will. 


Job 13:26 KJV  For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.


Job envisions God as drawing up an article of impeachment against Job. . . an indictment against him, holding Job now accountable for the admitted sins of his youth.


Job 13:27 KJV  Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.


I am restricted in motion.  You closely see every step I take. My every footstep is outlined, as the path that You have prescribed for me.  


Job 13:28 KJV  And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.


Job now refers to himself in the third person.  He is as a rotten fruit or a stinking piece of meat being eaten by maggots, or a piece of cloth eaten by the worms of a moth.

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