Job 13

Notes

Behold, all these things I know from my own experience and observation, or have learned from others; whereby you may see that I need none of your instructions on these points. 3. It is with God himself that I wish to debate my own integrity, and to answer his objections against it; 4. For ye are all forgers of false doctrines and accusations against me; you unskilfully and unfaithfully prescribe bad remedies for my affliction, and misapply good ones. 5, 6. It would be more agreeable to me, and show more wisdom in you, if ye would never speak a word more on the subject, but carefully listen to what I can say in my own behalf. 7. Doth God stand in need of your false doctrines, or your false accusations of me, contrary to the dictates of your own conscience, to justify his proceedings against me? 8. Hath he so little right on his side, that you must show him favour, and oblige him by wronging me? 9. Would it be for your honour or advantage that he should narrowly examine your discourses, and the springs and motives of them? Do ye think that he will be deceived with your flatteries and high pretences to piety? 10. No; he will certainly, fearfully, and openly chastise you for your hypocritical attempts to gratify him by condemning me. 11. Should not his infinite majesty, holiness, and awful justice make you afraid to deal unjustly, even on his behalf, or to speak rashly of his ways and counsels? 12. Ye yourselves are but mean worms, sprung out of the dust before him; and your boasted remonstrances on his behalf, and your bulwarks of arguments, are worthless and weak, as heaps of dirt or clay. 13. Keep silence therefore, and do not interrupt my speech; let me but speak out my mind, be the penal issue of it what it will. 14. I am so conscious of my integrity, that I must wonder why I suffer such enraging miseries, and am exposed to such evils; and I could risk all danger to obtain a thorough reasoning with God. 15. Lo! should he utterly cut me off, and not leave me the least glimmering of hope, I would, to the last gasp, maintain mine integrity. 16. Nay, I am confident that he himself, with whom no hypocrite dare lodge his appeal, will in due time vindicate me, preserve me in or deliver me from trouble; and save me with an everlasting salvation. 17, 18, Hear me then with care and attention: I have formed a process against myself, and digested what I have to say for myself; and I know that, in the issue, I shall be cleared from every charge of hypocrisy, and manifested a righteous person. 19. What impartial person dare charge me with hypocrisy, or can prove his point? If he could, I should be silent, die with shame, and be strangled with grief. But when it is otherwise, it is death to me to neglect my own just vindication. 20-22. Do thou, great Judge, remove thy oppressing rod from off me, and let not the overwhelming awe of thy majesty terrify me: then will I, in the most bold and free manner, debate my cause with thee. 23. What, and how many, O God, are those heinous sins which require such grievous punishments? Or if I am thus afflicted for some particular crime, cause me to know it. 24. Why shouldest thou in anger thus withhold thy favours and comforts? Why shouldest thou hold and treat me as an enemy to thee? 25. How canst thou find in thy heart so violently to toss and grievously persecute me, who am so mean, weak, and contemptible in thy sight? And what honour canst thou acquire by it? 26. Thou passest the most severe sentence against me; and by afflicting me with the most tormenting troubles, bringest to my mind, and punishest me for, the crimes which were committed before I well knew what I did. 27. Thy fearful judgments compass me in so close and tormenting a manner that I cannot escape. They follow me at the very heels; the tokens of thy wrath are engraven on the very soles of my feet. 28 And under these my frail carcass gradually rots into death.

Ver. 1. ['This' is not in the original, and the sense would be better expressed by its omission: 'Lo, mine eye hath seen all,' i.e. all that you have seen. My knowledge is as extensive as yours, consequently my judgments and views are deserving of as much credit as yours. P.]

Ver. 7. [Wickedly—wrongfully accusing me with the view of honouring him. Deceitfully—fallaciously, sophistically. C.]

Ver. 12. [Delitzsch translates as follows:—'Your memorable words are proverbs of dust, your strongholds are become strongholds of clay.' The meaning is that their proverbs have no bearing on the questions at issue, and are therefore as ashes; their 'strongholds,' or 'choice arguments,' are weak and worthless as ramparts of clay. P.]

Ver. 14. [Job may literally have taken his 'flesh in his teeth' to alleviate some torturing pain, as in the mercy of God pressure sometimes affords relief. Put my life in my hand—freely offering it back to the Giver, longing and praying for death. All this is no want of reliance upon God, no wish to escape his scrutiny and judgment; for though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. C.——'Wherefore should I bear my flesh in my teeth? I take my life in my hands:' i.e. Wherefore should I be intent on the preservation of my life, as a wild beast on the preservation of its prey, by carrying it away between its teeth? I will calmly submit to whatever danger comes, even to death itself. P.]

Ver. 27. [Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks. Of what kind they were is not known. From the following reference to paths, they were most probably a species of clog locked on the foot, and used to prevent a slave or prisoner from escaping.—Settest a print upon the heels of my feet. The allusion is very obscure; but if the stocks were, as we have supposed, clogs, the allusion may be to some peculiar mark upon the heel, whereby a runaway culprit might be distinguished and traced. C.]

Reflections.—Hot disputants generally magnify themselves and undervalue their opponents; and too seldom do they adhere to truth with proper exactness. There is great need then to pray that the Lord would mortify our pride, and keep us from the way of lying; and so far as is for his glory, keep us out of temptation. Deliberate lying is of all things most infamous. But what insignificant physicians are all but Christ to a sin-sick or wrath-sick soul! It is singularly criminal to manage the cause of God in a wicked and deceitful manner. What men call pious frauds are with God impious cheats; and devout persecutions are but horrid profanations of his name. Strict will be the scrutiny, and severe the rebukes of God, with respect to those found guilty of these things! No good intentions, no pious pretence, will avail at his awful bar. Let us then stand in awe of his perfections. Never let us, who are so mean and mortal, dare to contemn or trample on our neighbour. Never let us dare to exhibit weak and carnal remonstrances on God's behalf. But how supporting is it under trouble to have the testimony of a good conscience! and it is relieving to get our minds vented in kindly complaints. It is glorious, in the extremity of trouble, to be strong in the faith, giving glory to God, and coming boldly to his throne of grace, to ask mercy, and obtain grace to help us in the time of need. But how awful is it to find the greatest saints mingling their passions with their prayers! Lord, what is man, even in his best estate, if left to himself! And what a hell on earth sin sometimes forms for even the children of God! Sins long before committed fall with an awful weight on their conscience, and cause them to roar through disquiet of spirit. If then I find myself deserted of God; if I find my sins of youth remembered by him, and my present miscarriages strictly animadverted upon; if I find myself wasting away under his heavy hand, let me never murmur at his dispensations. Let me, holding fast his promise, believe him to be my friend, even when he puts on the appearance of an enemy. Let me firmly expect the performance of his promises, even when all the ways leading to it are seemingly shut up. Let me rejoice in the Lord when he hath left me nothing else; and in dying moments let me derive from him my ever-living consolation.