| Job 13:1
| Behold my eye hath seen all these things, and my ear hath heard them, and I have understood them all.
| All, without your information. (Calmet)
|
| Job 13:2
| According to your knowledge, I also know: neither am I inferior to you.
|
|
| Job 13:3
| But yet I will speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God:
| Reason. Hebrew, "to dispute with, or before God," concerning the matter which we have in hand. He appeals to God, as to the judge of all.
|
| Job 13:4
| Having first shewn that you are forgers of lies, and maintainers of perverse opinions.
| Having. Hebrew, "But ye are sewers of lies." (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "unskilful surgeons, (who, instead of sewing up a wound, increase it) and all of you doctors of evil;" vain empirics. --- Maintainers. Protestants, "ye are all physicians of no value." (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:5
| And I wish you would hold your peace, that you might be thought to be wise men.
| Men. Proverbs 17:28. If you had been silent, you might still have had the reputation of wisdom. (Calmet)
|
| Job 13:6
| Hear ye therefore my reproof, and attend to the judgment of my lips.
| Judgment. Hebrew, "pleading" before our common judge. (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:7
| Hath God any need of your lie, that you should speak deceitfully for him?
|
|
| Job 13:8
| Do you accept his person, and do you endeavour to judge for God?
| Accept. Hebrew, "will you not be seized with fear?" Olympiodorus translates, "will you stand in his presence, and dispute with him?" (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "Are you sent to be judges?" etc., or, do you suppose that you please him by asserting that he punishes me for my sins? (Haydock) --- Is it thus you hope to gain his favour? (Calmet) --- He knows the state of my soul best; then I myself: but you are quite in the dark. (Worthington)
|
| Job 13:9
| Or shall it please him, from whom nothing can be concealed? or shall he be deceived as a man, with your deceitful dealings?
| Or. Hebrew, "Is it good that he should examine you, would you escape?" (Calmet)
|
| Job 13:10
| He shall reprove you, because in secret you accept his person.
| His. Hebrew, "persons." Because you see me afflicted, you infer that I am guilty; and think this mode of judging most honourable to God, whom you wish thus to please. (Haydock) --- But he stands not in need of lies; (Calmet) and something farther is still to be proved. (Haydock) --- You judge rashly, as if you designed to please a prince, (Menochius) without examining the cause of the accused. (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:11
| As soon as he shall move himself, he shall trouble you: and his dread shall fall upon you.
|
|
| Job 13:12
| Your remembrance shall be compared to ashes, and your necks shall be brought to clay.
| Necks. Septuagint, "body." Hebrew also, (Haydock) "heights," (Calmet) or "fortifications." (Grotius)
|
| Job 13:13
| Hold your peace a little while, that I may speak whatsoever my mind shall suggest to me.
| Whatsoever. Hebrew, "come what will." Septuagint, "that my anger may cease." (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:14
| Why do I tear my flesh with my teeth, and carry my soul in my hands?
| Why you seem to ask do I thus eagerly desire to die, (Haydock) as if I were tearing my own flesh, and exposing my soul to danger, (Worthington) like a madman? (Tirinus) --- Is it not better for me to address myself to God, that he would hasten my departure, than thus to tear my flesh with my teeth? (Calmet) --- Some have supposed that Job really did so in extreme anguish, (Ven. Bede) the leprosy occasioning such an insupportable irritation. (Haydock) --- But the expression insinuates an interior anguish or despair; (Isaias 49:26.) in which sense Pythagoras enjoins, "not to eat the heart." --- Hands, in imminent danger of death, Psalm 118:109. --- St. Gregory explains it in a moral sense: "It is to manifest the intention of the heart by the actions." (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:15
| Although he should kill me, I will trust in him: but yet I will reprove my ways in his sight.
| In him. Hebrew lu is read, though lo, "not," is written in the Hebrew text. (Haydock) --- Protestants, etc., follow the sense of the Vulgate, and Junius comes to the same, as he reads lo with an interrogation: "Should I not hope in him?" Luther and the Belgic version go astray: "Behold he shall kill me, and I cannot expect," or hope; I am resolved to die: which words indicate "extreme impatience." (Amama) --- Septuagint, "If the powerful (or Lord) lay [not] hands on me, since it is commenced? No: but I shall speak and arraign [you] before him," etc. The words not and you are thus placed in Grabe's edition. (Haydock) --- Ways. I do not pretend that I am quite blameless. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "I will maintain (Marginal note: prove, or argue) mine own ways before him." (Haydock) --- I will hope, like Abraham, even against hope, to shew that I am not actuated by despair: yet I will continue to declare my innocence, ver. 16. (Tirinus)
|
| Job 13:16
| And he shall be my saviour: for no hypocrite shall come before his presence.
| Hypocrite. If I were such, I should not dare to appeal so boldly to his tribunal. (Calmet)
|
| Job 13:17
| Hear ye my speech, and receive with your ears hidden truths.
| Truths. Literally, "riddles" to you. Hebrew achavathi, (Haydock) means "instructions," etc. (Calmet)
|
| Job 13:18
| If I shall be judged, I know that I shall be found just.
| Just. He was in extreme anguish, yet still trusted in God. (Worthington)
|
| Job 13:19
| Who is he that will plead against me? let him come: why am I consumed, holding my peace?
| Peace. It will be some consolation to explain my reasons. If I am fairly overcome, I shall die with more content. (Calmet)
|
| Job 13:20
| Two things only do not to me, and then from thy face I shall not be hid:
| Only. He makes the same petition to God as [in] Job 9:34., and 33:7. (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:21
| Withdraw thy hand far from me, and let not thy dread terrify me.
|
|
| Job 13:22
| Call me, and I will answer thee: or else I will speak, and do thou answer me.
|
|
| Job 13:23
| How many are my iniquities and sins? make me know my crimes and offences.
| Offences, which might be hidden to Job himself. (Worthington) --- He speaks to God with the freedom which he had requested, desiring to know if he were really guilty, (Calmet) that he might give glory to him, (Haydock) by an humble confession.
|
| Job 13:24
| Why hidest thou thy face, and thinkest me thy enemy?
|
|
| Job 13:25
| Against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind, thou shewest thy power, and thou pursuest a dry straw.
|
|
| Job 13:26
| For thou writest bitter things against me, and wilt consume me for the sins of my youth.
| Bitter. The judge wrote down the sentence; which he read, or gave to his officer. (Calmet) --- Youth, for which I thought I had satisfied. (Haydock)
|
| Job 13:27
| Thou hast put my feet in the stocks, and hast observed all my paths, and hast considered the steps of my feet:
| Stocks, in which the person's legs were sometimes stretched to the sixth hole; (Calmet) at other times, the neck was confined. (Menochius) --- Some translate the Hebrew, "in the mud," which agrees with the other part of the verse. --- Steps. Hebrew and Septuagint, "roots," or ankles, which retained the prints made by the stocks.
|
| Job 13:28
| Who am to be consumed as rottenness, and as a garment that is moth-eaten.
| Rottenness. Septuagint, "an old vessel," or skin, to contain wine, etc. (Calmet) --- My condition might excite pity. (Menochius)
|