Job — Chapter 13

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Zophar has just finished the first round of the friends' speeches (ch 11). He told Job that God was exacting "less than your guilt deserves" (11:6) and that a "stupid man" would get understanding about the day a wild donkey was born human (11:12). Job's answer runs for three chapters (chs 12–14), his longest speech so far, and it replies to all three friends at once. In chapter 12 he mocks their claim to wisdom ("wisdom will die with you," 12:2) and shows that he knows God's power over creation, kings and nations as well as they do (12:13–25). In chapter 13 Job turns. He has heard enough from men about God. Now he wants to speak to God. The chapter moves in three steps: a sharp rebuke of the friends for defending God with lies (vv1–12), Job's daring decision to take his case to God whatever it costs (vv13–19), and then his first direct plea to God in this speech (vv20–28). The chapter holds one of the most quoted lines in the book, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him" (v15), and that line comes with a well-known question about the Hebrew text, explained below.

Job Replies: The LORD Has Done This (vv1–28)

• "Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it" (v1). "All this" points back to Job's description of God's power in chapter 12. The Tyndale notes point out that Job now appeals to experience, just as the friends did. Eliphaz kept saying "as I have seen" (4:8; 5:3). Job answers that his eyes work too.
• "What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you" (v2). This repeats 12:3 almost word for word. Zophar called him "hollow," and Job will not be talked down to. He agrees with much of their theology. His quarrel is with how they are using it.
• "But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God" (v3). This is the turning point of the chapter, and in some ways of the whole book. "The Almighty" is Shaddai, a very old name for God that appears more often in Job than in any other book. "Argue my case" is courtroom language: Job wants to reason it out with God, as one party in a lawsuit speaks to a judge. In chapter 9 Job thought this hopeless (9:2). Now he will try anyway, rather than keep listening to his friends.
• "As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all" (v4). Two sharp pictures. "Whitewash" is taphal, to smear or plaster over. The lexicon renders the phrase "ye are falsehood-plasterers." The same verb is used in Psalm 119:69, "the insolent smear me with lies." The friends have plastered a coat of lies about secret sin over who Job really is. "Worthless" is elil, a word that usually means "idols," worthless gods (Lev 19:4; Ps 96:5). The friends came as doctors (2:11), but diagnosed without examining the patient.
• "Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!" (v5). There is a sting here. Proverbs says, "Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise" (Prov 17:28). Job is saying the wisest thing they could do is stop talking. The friends' best moment was their first one, when they sat with Job on the ground "seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him" (2:13).
• "Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him?" (v7). Here is the heart of Job's complaint against the friends. To defend God's justice, they have had to invent sins Job didn't commit. The Tyndale notes point to the ninth commandment (Exod 20:16): false witness is forbidden, even when it is offered on God's behalf. God does not need lies told in his favor. A defense of God built on falsehood dishonors the God of truth.
• "Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God?" (v8). "Show partiality" is literally "lift up his face," a Hebrew phrase for favoring someone in a lawsuit. Judges in Israel were forbidden to do it: "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great" (Lev 19:15; Deut 1:17). The irony is sharp: the friends are acting like crooked lawyers siding with the more powerful party without weighing the evidence.
• "Will it be well with you when he searches you out?" (vv9–11). Job warns them that God will examine their arguments, and he will not be fooled the way people are fooled. "He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality" (v10). This is remarkable. Job feels God is treating him unjustly, yet he still trusts God's justice enough to warn his friends by it. And he turns out to be right. At the end of the book God says to Eliphaz, "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7).
• "Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay" (v12). "Maxims" is zikkaron, usually "memorial" or "reminder." Here it means sayings people remember and repeat, the stock wisdom everyone knows. The lexicon renders the line "your memorial words are ashen sayings," meaning worthless. Ashes are what is left after the fire, light and useless (Isa 44:20). "Defenses" probably pictures a protective wall, and theirs is clay that crumbles at the first blow. The friends have recited old sayings instead of looking at the man in front of them.
• "Let me have silence… and let come on me what may" (vv13–14). Job knows that speaking boldly to God is dangerous, and he accepts whatever comes. "Take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand" (v14) are two old proverbs for risking everything. The first may picture an animal carrying its prey in its mouth, where it can easily be lost. The second is a phrase used elsewhere in the Old Testament. Jephthah "took my life in my hand" when he went into battle (Judg 12:3), and David "took his life in his hand" when he faced Goliath (1 Sam 19:5). Job is about to stake his life on his own honesty before God.
• "Though he slay me, I will hope in him" (v15). These words have comforted believers for centuries. Job does not expect God to spare him. He expects to die. Yet he will not let go of God. "Hope" is yachal, a word that means to wait or wait for. The lexicon gives Noah's waiting for the dove (Gen 8:12) as one of its uses, and it is the word of Psalm 130:7, "O Israel, hope in the LORD." Even if God kills him, Job will keep waiting on God. The cross-references gather the same kind of faith elsewhere: "I know that my Redeemer lives" (19:25), "when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold" (23:10), and Paul's confidence that not even death can separate believers from God's love (Rom 8:38).
• A question about the Hebrew of v15. Ancient Hebrew scribes copied the written text exactly, even where they thought it should be read differently, and noted the preferred reading in the margin. In this verse the written text (the ketiv) has lo', "not." The margin (the qere, "what is read") has lo, "to him" or "in him." The two words sound the same and differ by one letter. Read with the margin, the line is "I will hope in him," as in the ESV, KJV and NIV, the ancient Latin Vulgate and most Jewish tradition. Read with the written text, it becomes something like "Look, he will kill me; I have no hope," as in the RSV and NRSV. The first word, usually "behold" or "look," can also mean "though," which helps the more hopeful reading. Both readings have serious support, and honest scholars disagree. JFB preferred the written text, as many modern scholars do. On that reading, Job expects to die and has no hope of surviving, but he will argue his case before God anyway. Even then, faith is still there: a man with no hope in God at all would not want to stand before God's face. Either way, Job will not stop coming to God, whatever it costs.
• "Yet I will argue my ways to his face" (v15). The second half of the verse matters as much as the first. Job's hope is not quiet resignation. He trusts God enough to bring his complaint straight to him. "My ways" means his conduct, how he has lived. Job wants to lay out his life before God and be judged on the truth.
• "This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him" (v16). "Salvation" is yeshuah, rescue or deliverance, the word in "the LORD… has become my salvation" (Exod 15:2). A "godless" person, a hypocrite, would never dare to come before God asking to be examined, so Job's very wish to stand there shows his heart is honest. JFB catches the sense: this "speaks in my behalf (literally, 'for my saving acquittal')." Paul seems to echo this verse in Philippians 1:19. Writing from prison, he says, "this will turn out for my deliverance," and his Greek matches the Greek translation of Job 13:16 word for word. Like Job, Paul was facing possible death and was sure God would vindicate him.
• "I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right" (vv18–19). "Prepared" pictures a lawyer laying out evidence in order. "Be in the right" means to be declared innocent. Job claims not sinlessness (see v26) but innocence of the hidden wickedness his friends allege, as God himself had said (1:8; 2:3). If anyone can prove a charge, Job will "be silent and die" (v19). No one takes up the challenge. The friends have suspicion, not evidence.
• "Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face" (v20). Now Job speaks to God directly. He asks for two things: that God would take his crushing hand off him, and that God would stop terrifying him (v21). Job had asked for the same in 9:34. He wants a fair hearing, not a trial where one side is too frightened to speak. Unlike Adam and Eve, who hid from God (Gen 3:8), Job wants to come out and meet him.
• "Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me" (v22). Job offers God a choice, again in courtroom terms: either God brings the charges and Job answers, or Job speaks first and God responds. The Tyndale notes observe that since God does not speak first, Job takes the second option and begins at once (v23). God will call him in the end: "Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me" (38:3). But when that day comes, Job has nothing to say: "I lay my hand on my mouth" (40:4).
• "How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin" (v23). Job uses the three main Hebrew words for wrongdoing: "iniquity" (twisting what is right), "sin" (missing the mark) and "transgression" (rebellion). They are the three words of Exodus 34:7, where God forgives "iniquity and transgression and sin." Job is asking to see the charge sheet. It is a brave and humble prayer at once, like David's "Search me, O God… and see if there be any grievous way in me" (Ps 139:23–24). Job is willing to be shown he was wrong.
• "Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?" (v24). In the Old Testament, God's face turned toward someone means his favor and blessing: "The LORD make his face to shine upon you" (Num 6:25). God hiding his face means distance or displeasure (Ps 30:7; Ps 88:14). Job's worst pain is feeling shut out by God. The Tyndale notes suggest a play on words: Job's name in Hebrew is 'iyyov, and "enemy" is 'oyev. The man whose name sounds like "enemy" protests that he is not God's enemy, while the reader knows God has called him "my servant" (1:8).
• "Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?" (v25). A dead leaf blown by the wind and chaff left on a threshing floor are pictures of things that are weak and worthless. In the Old Testament chaff is what the wind drives away (Ps 1:4; Ps 83:13). Why would the almighty God hunt down something so helpless? It is an appeal to mercy as much as a complaint.
• "For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth" (v26). "Write" is legal language, recording charges or a sentence. JFB calls it "a judicial phrase, to note down the determined punishment." Job does not claim he never sinned. He admits "the iniquities of my youth," the foolish sins of a young man, like David's prayer "Remember not the sins of my youth" (Ps 25:7). His complaint is that God seems to be digging up old sins, long since repented of, and charging him for them now. Job is wrong about why he suffers, but he is honest about the fact that he is a sinner, something Zophar claimed he would not admit (11:4).
• "You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths" (v27). "Stocks" (sad) were wooden blocks that locked a prisoner's feet in place. The word appears only here and in 33:11, where Elihu quotes this verse back to Job. JFB points to Jeremiah, who was put in the stocks (Jer 20:2). The lexicon shows that Jeremiah's passage uses a different Hebrew word, but the punishment is the same. "You set a limit for the soles of my feet" probably means a line Job cannot step over, though some older readers took it as a mark cut into the feet. Either way, Job feels like a prisoner under constant watch.
• "Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten" (v28). Job suddenly speaks of himself as "man" in general, a cloth slowly eaten through by moths. Isaiah uses the same picture for those who oppose God (Isa 50:9; 51:8), and Jesus for earthly treasure (Matt 6:19). The verse leads straight into Job's lament on the frailty of all people, "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble" (14:1).
• Was Job right to speak this way? Some readers focus on v15 and see heroic faith clinging to God in the dark. Others note how accusing the rest of the chapter is, and that God later rebukes Job for words "without knowledge" (38:2) and Job repents (42:6). Both are true. Job says things he will later take back, but he says them to God, not about God behind his back. God's verdict at the end is that Job, not his friends, "spoke of me what is right" (42:7). Honest complaint brought to God is closer to faith than polished lies told about him.
• Commentators: All three agree that the friends' great fault was defending God with falsehood. Matthew Henry is blunt on vv7–8: "Pious frauds (as they call them) are impious cheats," and "Good work ought not to be put into bad hands." JFB says the friends used "fallacies to vindicate God in His dealings; as if the end justified the means." Guzik argues that the friends' "partiality" was really for themselves and their own system. On v15 the three take different paths. Henry calls the line "a high expression of faith" and says, "We must rejoice in God when we have nothing else to rejoice in." Guzik also treats it devotionally, as Job's answer to Satan's charge (1:9–11). Neither Henry nor Guzik mentions the textual question. JFB does, noting that the written reading "not" is the one "which agrees best with the context," while still reading the verse as Job's resolve to plead his cause. On v16 Henry adds, "Sincerity is our evangelical perfection; nothing will ruin us but the want of that." On v23 he writes, "A true penitent is willing to know the worst of himself," and Guzik likewise sees Job admitting he could be wrong. On v26 Henry warns that "Time does not wear out the guilt of sin," and that "the sins of youth are often the smart of age," though he also says Job's complaint here comes from his melancholy, since God does not deal with us as our sins deserve. On v27 Guzik passes on Bullinger's suggestion that the "limit" is an owner's mark like one cut into a cow's hoof. On v28 Henry observes, "Man, at the best, wears fast; but, under God's rebukes especially, he is soon gone." JFB has no comment on vv2 and 6.

Pointing to Christ

Job wanted to stand before God without dread (v21) and plead his case (v3). In Christ that becomes possible. Believers "have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1), and can "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace" (Heb 4:16), not because, like Job, they are innocent of the charges, but because Christ has answered for them. Job asked God, "Why do you hide your face?" (v24). On the cross Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46). He was the one truly blameless man, counted as God's enemy for the sake of sinners. And Job's words "Though he slay me, I will hope in him" were lived out in full by Jesus, who went to his death still trusting his Father: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Luke 23:46). God answered that hope by raising him from the dead.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik emphasizes that Job's charge against his friends (vv.7-10) is later vindicated by God Himself (42:7). The friends thought they were defending God, but God did not need or want that kind of defense. Lying for God is still lying. Guzik also notes that verse 15 is the most remarkable statement of faith in the Old Testament — Job trusts a God who appears to be killing him. This is not blind faith but defiant faith: faith that holds on precisely when all evidence says to let go.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• BibleProject: bibleproject.com On the whole book: the speech from the whirlwind, and why it answers Job the way it does.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Job -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• The Wisdom of Silence (v.5) — Job tells his friends their silence would have been wiser than everything they've said since, since every word since has only added to his wounds. Do you know when the most spiritual thing you can offer someone who is suffering is simply your presence, not your explanations?
• Refusing to Manufacture Explanations (vv.7-8) — Job confronts his friends for speaking falsely on God's behalf, inventing reasons for his suffering that God never actually gave them. Do you ever fill in the gaps of what God is doing with confident guesses instead of admitting you don't know?
• Bold, Costly Honesty Before God (vv.13-16) — Job knows that approaching God this directly could cost him everything, yet he chooses honest confrontation over safe silence. Are you willing to bring your hardest, most honest questions to God even when it feels risky?
• Trust That Doesn't Depend on the Outcome (v.15) — Job declares he will trust God even if it costs his life, refusing to make his faith conditional on rescue or explanation. Is your trust in God tied to Him answering the way you want, or can it hold even when the outcome is uncertain?
• Asking to Be Shown, Not Assuming Guilt (v.23) — Job asks God to name his specific sins rather than simply assuming he must have done something to deserve this. When you're struggling, do you let God show you what's actually true rather than manufacturing guilt you have no real reason to carry?