Job  

Chapter  13  

"Job's address to Zophar continues."

Job  13:1   "Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it."  

Job is saying that he has seen all the things that he is speaking of come to pass.   

Job  13:2   "What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you."  

Job is telling these friends, that he has heard all the things of advise that they had given to him, and he knows all that they are saying.  Everything that you know, I know.      

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

Job is saying, I don't want to reason with you, but I want the answer from God Himself.   

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

Job is reminding them that with all his boils covering him from head to toe, you haven't taken away one small part of my pain.  Just like many of the preachers today, they continue to holler, repent, while at the same time they put no knowledge of the truth into your mind.  They want to tell you all the things that you are doing wrong, yet they will not plant the plan of God in your mind to where you can navigate through this life. 

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

Job is telling these three, if you just keep your mouth shut, you would be much wiser.   

Job  13:6   "Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips."  

Job is pleading with them to just listen to what I am is saying.

Job  13:7   "Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for Him?"  

Are you going to put yourself in God's place and judge me?  Do you think that you are smarter than God.  Even today people like to play God with other peoples lives, and God doesn't like that.    

Job  13:8   "Will ye accept His person? will ye contend for God?"  

Job  13:9   "Is it good that He should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock Him?"  

Are you so stupid that you would quibble with God like He were a man?  

Job  13:10   "He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons."  

If you try to sit in God's role of judgment, God will put you in your place, for it is a serious thing with God.  God has His plan for each of our lives and we are not to judge others in their running of their lives.  God is dealing with each of His people, and He doesn't treat all of us alike.  Many need correction, while other try to follow God's plan.      

Job  13:11   "Shall not His excellency make you afraid? and His dread fall upon you?"  

Job is asking, when you are judging me, doesn't it make you a little nervous?  

Job  13:12   "Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay."  

Your pompous talk is nothing but ashes. Your words have no more meaning than a hunk of clay.     

Job  13:13   "Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will."  

Job again tells them that they are not listening to what he has to say, but they are closed minded to anything Job says.   

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

Job is telling them that he is going to take his own life in his hand and speak my mind.  

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

Even if God desires to take my life, yet will I continue to trust in Him.  God may kill me, but I will still present my case to the Father.  Be very careful when you present your case to men, for they will twist what you say, but instead present your case directly to God.  When you try to shape your life to God's plan, you will never drift off to far.        

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

Job is telling these men that he knows that he will stand before God, even when those hypocrites do not.  Job is more or less calling these men hypocrites.   

Job  13:17   "Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears."  

Job  13:18   "Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified."  

Job is telling these men that I have presented his case to God, and I know that I will be acquited in the end; and he will.   

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

Job is saying that these things of the flesh are hurting me so bad, and the things in my heart are bothering me so much that if I don't speak out I will die.  Job has decided by this time that a man cannot help him.  

Job  13:20   "Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from Thee."  

Job is asking them again, please grant me these two things.   

Job  13:21   "Withdraw Thine hand far from me; and let not Thy dread make me afraid."  

These two things are that they stop telling Job all these scary stories, and stop judging me.  

Job  13:22   "Then call Thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and and answer Thou me."  

Now lets sit down and reason this thing through.   

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

Finally Job is getting to the point.  He is saying that you have accused me of iniquities and sins, so if I have done these things, name those sins to me now.  This is how you analyze your life.  Look at the things you do and analyze why you do the things you do and say.  Job had no sins that they could point to, so they just talked in general terms.  

Job  13:24   "Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and holdest me for Thine enemy?"  

The whole time that these men talked to Job, they couldn't even look at him in the eyes.  They looked down at the ground the whole time.   

Job  13:25   "Wilt Thou break a leaf driven to and from? and wilt Thou pursue the dry stubble."  

This is written in the Hebrew and it is the way that many of God's people are today.  In your quest for the answer, are you going to chase every dry leaf that blows across the land.  Both the dry leaf and the stubble are things of no substance of value, they blow away in the wind.  

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

You are trying to even make me heir to the sins of my youth that have been forgiven.   

 Job  13:27   "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."  

You haven't tried to understand me, but you have already placed my feet in the stocks and are getting me ready for punishment.  Job is telling them that they have already stamped him with the mark of a prisoner.    

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

Many of the early Hebrew manuscripts do not have this verse.  However, this verse reads, they have condemned Job and made Job a sinner in their minds, just as sure as a rotten things is consumed by maggots, and a garment is eaten by the moths.