Job: Though He Slay Me
1 “Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it. 2 What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you. 3 “Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God. 4 But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value. 5 Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise. 6 Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips. 7 Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him? 8 Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God? 9 Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him? 10 He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality. 11 Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you? 12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay. 13 “Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will. 14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand? 15 Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him. 16 This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him. 17 Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears. 18 See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous. 19 Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would hold my peace and give up the spirit. 20 “Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face: 21 withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid. 22 Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me. 23 How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin. 24 Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy? 25 Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble? 26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. 27 You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet, 28 though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Job accuses his friends of lying on God's behalf, and asks to be told the charge against him rather than to be spared it.
The charge Job brings against his comforters is the most serious in the book, and it is not that they are unkind. Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him? Will you show partiality to him? Job 13:7–8.
They are perjuring themselves in God's favor. To defend his justice they have invented a guilt in Job that they cannot see, and Job's question is whether God wants that kind of help. His answer is that God will audit it: he will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality Job 13:10.
That is precisely what happens in the last chapter Job 42:7. Job predicts the verdict of the book while sitting on the ash heap.
His assessment of their material is blunt. You are all physicians of no value; their sayings are proverbs of ashes, their defenses defenses of clay Job 13:4 Job 13:12. And the best advice he gives them is to stop: oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise Job 13:5 — which is a reference to the seven days that went well.
Then he turns to God and states his intention with a phrase that has become famous and is usually softened. Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him Job 13:15.
This is not serenity. He expects to die and expects nothing from the encounter, and he is going to make his case anyway. It is faith of the barest kind — not confidence in the outcome, but a refusal to let go of the truth about himself in order to buy a better one. And the next verse says why he thinks the attempt is safe: a godless man will not come before him Job 13:16. A guilty man would not dare ask for this hearing, so the asking is itself part of his defense.
The terms he proposes are two, and they are modest. Withdraw the hand, and don't let your terror make me afraid Job 13:21. Remove the pain and the dread, and a conversation becomes possible in either direction: call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me Job 13:22.
He is not demanding to prosecute. He will take either role.
And the request itself is the one he has been making since chapter 10, in the sharpest form yet: how many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin Job 13:23.
He is asking for the indictment. Not for acquittal, not for relief — for the charge sheet, so that he can answer it. That request is never granted, and the reason is the one thing he is never told: there is no charge.
The close is a picture of disproportion. Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble? Job 13:25 — the full weight of God brought against something already blowing away, decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten Job 13:28.
settled What this mark means