4 For ye indeed are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
For thou hast taken a pledge of thy brother for nought, and stripped off the clothing of the naked. Thou hast not given water to the fainting to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. But the powerful man, he had the land; and the man of high rank dwelt in it. Widows hast thou sent empty away, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee; Or darkness, that thou canst not see, and floods of waters cover thee. Is not +God in the height of the heavens? And behold the summit of the stars: how exalted are they! And thou sayest, What doth ùGod know? will he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh on the vault of the heavens. Dost thou mark the ancient path which wicked men have trodden? Who were carried off before the time, whose foundation was overflowed with a flood; Who said unto ùGod, Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do to them? Yet he filled their houses with good. But the counsel of the wicked is far from me. The righteous see it, and are glad; and the innocent laugh them to scorn: Is not he who rose against us destroyed, and doth not the fire consume his residue? Reconcile thyself now with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in thy heart. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up. If thou remove unrighteousness far from thy tents, And put the precious ore with the dust, and [the gold of] Ophir among the stones of the torrents, Then the Almighty will be thy precious ore, and silver heaped up unto thee; Yea, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto +God: Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he will hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows; And thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and light shall shine upon thy ways. When they are made low, then thou shalt say, Rise up! and he shall save him that is of downcast eyes. [Even] him that is not innocent shall he deliver; yea, he shall be delivered by the pureness of thy hands.
Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked? Have ye not asked the wayfarers? and do ye not regard their tokens: That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath. Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb. The clods of the valley are sweet unto him; and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him. How then comfort ye me in vain? Your answers remain perfidious.
Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the flame of his fire shall not shine. The light shall become dark in his tent, and his lamp over him shall be put out. The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. For he is sent into the net by his own feet, and he walketh on the meshes; The gin taketh [him] by the heel, the snare layeth hold on him; A cord is hidden for him in the ground, and his trap in the way. Terrors make him afraid on every side, and chase him at his footsteps. His strength is hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready at his side. The firstborn of death devoureth the members of his body; it will devour his members. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tent, and it shall lead him away to the king of terrors: They who are none of his shall dwell in his tent; brimstone shall be showered upon his habitation: His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off; His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name on the pasture-grounds. He is driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. He hath neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining in the places of his sojourn. They that come after shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before [them] were affrighted. Surely, such are the dwellings of the unrighteous man, and such the place of him that knoweth not ùGod.
Doth ùGod pervert judgment, and the Almighty pervert justice? If thy children have sinned against him, he hath also given them over into the hand of their transgression.
Call, I pray thee! Is there any that answereth thee? and to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn? For vexation killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the simple. I myself saw the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation. His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, and there is no deliverer: Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh even out of the thorns; and the snare gapeth for his substance.
Remember, I pray thee, who that was innocent has perished? and where were the upright cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity and sow mischief, reap the same. By the breath of +God they perish, and by the blast of his nostrils are they consumed. The roar of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken; The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 13
Commentary on Job 13 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 13
Job 13:1-28. Job's Reply to Zophar Continued.
1. all this—as to the dealings of Providence (Job 12:3).
3. Job wishes to plead his cause before God (Job 9:34, 35), as he is more and more convinced of the valueless character of his would-be "physicians" (Job 16:2).
4. forgers of lies—literally, "artful twisters of vain speeches" [Umbreit].
5. (Pr 17:28). The Arabs say, "The wise are dumb; silence is wisdom."
7. deceitfully—use fallacies to vindicate God in His dealings; as if the end justified the means. Their "deceitfulness" for God, against Job, was that they asserted he was a sinner, because he was a sufferer.
8. accept his person—God's; that is, be partial for Him, as when a judge favors one party in a trial, because of personal considerations.
contend for God—namely, with fallacies and prepossessions against Job before judgment (Jud 6:31). Partiality can never please the impartial God, nor the goodness of the cause excuse the unfairness of the arguments.
9. Will the issue to you be good, when He searches out you and your arguments? Will you be regarded by Him as pure and disinterested?
mock—(Ga 6:7). Rather, "Can you deceive Him as one man?" &c.
10. If ye do, though secretly, act partially. (See on Job 13:8; Ps 82:1, 2). God can successfully vindicate His acts, and needs no fallacious argument of man.
11. make you afraid?—namely, of employing sophisms in His name (Jer 10:7, 10).
12. remembrances—"proverbial maxims," so called because well remembered.
like unto ashes—or, "parables of ashes"; the image of lightness and nothingness (Isa 44:20).
bodies—rather, "entrenchments"; those of clay, as opposed to those of stone, are easy to be destroyed; so the proverbs, behind which they entrench themselves, will not shelter them when God shall appear to reprove them for their injustice to Job.
13. Job would wish to be spared their speeches, so as to speak out all his mind as to his wretchedness (Job 13:14), happen what will.
14. A proverb for, "Why should I anxiously desire to save my life?" [Eichorn]. The image in the first clause is that of a wild beast, which in order to preserve his prey, carries it in his teeth. That in the second refers to men who hold in the hand what they want to keep secure.
15. in him—So the margin or keri, reads. But the textual reading or chetib is "not," which agrees best with the context, and other passages wherein he says he has no hope (Job 6:11; 7:21; 10:20; 19:10). "Though He slay me, and I dare no more hope, yet I will maintain," &c., that is, "I desire to vindicate myself before Him," as not a hypocrite [Umbreit and Noyes].
16. He—rather, "This also already speaks in my behalf (literally, 'for my saving acquittal') for an hypocrite would not wish to come before Him" (as I do) [Umbreit]. (See last clause of Job 13:15).
17. my declaration—namely, that I wish to be permitted to justify myself immediately before God.
with your ears—that is, attentively.
18. ordered—implying a constant preparation for defense in his confidence of innocence.
19. if, &c.—Rather, "Then would I hold my tongue and give up the ghost"; that is, if any one can contend with me and prove me false, I have no more to say. "I will be silent and die." Like our "I would stake my life on it" [Umbreit].
20. Address to God.
not hide—stand forth boldly to maintain my cause.
21. (See on Job 9:34 and see Ps 39:10).
22. call—a challenge to the defendant to answer to the charges.
answer—the defense begun.
speak—as plaintiff.
answer—to the plea of the plaintiff. Expressions from a trial.
23. The catalogue of my sins ought to be great, to judge from the severity with which God ever anew crushes one already bowed down. Would that He would reckon them up! He then would see how much my calamities outnumber them.
sin?—singular, "I am unconscious of a single particular sin, much less many" [Umbreit].
24. hidest … face—a figure from the gloomy impression caused by the sudden clouding over of the sun.
enemy—God treated Job as an enemy who must be robbed of power by ceaseless sufferings (Job 7:17, 21).
25. (Le 26:36; Ps 1:4). Job compares himself to a leaf already fallen, which the storm still chases hither and thither.
break—literally, "shake with (Thy) terrors." Jesus Christ does not "break the bruised reed" (Isa 42:3, 27:8).
26. writest—a judicial phrase, to note down the determined punishment. The sentence of the condemned used to be written down (Isa 10:1; Jer 22:30; Ps 149:9) [Umbreit].
bitter things—bitter punishments.
makest me to possess—or "inherit." In old age he receives possession of the inheritance of sin thoughtlessly acquired in youth. "To inherit sins" is to inherit the punishments inseparably connected with them in Hebrew ideas (Ps 25:7).
27. stocks—in which the prisoner's feet were made fast until the time of execution (Jer 20:2).
lookest narrowly—as an overseer would watch a prisoner.
print—Either the stocks, or his disease, marked his soles (Hebrew, "roots") as the bastinado would. Better, thou drawest (or diggest) [Gesenius] a line (or trench) [Gesenius] round my soles, beyond which I must not move [Umbreit].
28. Job speaks of himself in the third person, thus forming the transition to the general lot of man (Job 14:1; Ps 39:11; Ho 5:12).