Commentary - Job 13:1-12

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, Job moves from defense to offense. Having patiently endured the counsel of his three friends, he now turns the tables and becomes the prosecutor. He dismisses their wisdom as common knowledge, and then accuses them of being worthless physicians who are plastering over his wounds with lies. His central desire is to bypass these incompetent human counselors and take his case directly to the Almighty. The core of his charge against them is a profound one: they are attempting to lie for God. They are showing partiality, acting as sycophantic courtiers for the Almighty, and Job warns them that the very God they think they are defending will, in fact, judge them for their dishonest and unrighteous advocacy. Their wise-sounding proverbs are nothing more than dust and ash, and their arguments are as sturdy as mud walls.

This is not the complaint of a man losing his faith. It is the complaint of a man whose faith is so robust that he refuses to let God be defended by lies. He believes in God's justice so thoroughly that he is willing to risk arguing his case directly before Him, but he will not tolerate the cheap, formulaic, and ultimately slanderous defenses offered by his friends. He is accusing them of a false piety that is more interested in maintaining a tidy theological system than in dealing honestly with the facts of his case or the true character of God.

Outline

Context In Job

This section marks a significant turning point in the dialogue cycles. The first round of speeches is complete. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have all presented their case, which boils down to this: God is just, you are suffering, therefore you must have sinned grievously. Job has responded to each of them, but here in chapter 13, his response to Zophar (which began in chapter 12) transitions into a direct and blistering attack on all three of them. He is no longer simply refuting their arguments; he is now judging their motives and methods. This sets the stage for the rest of the book, where the divide between Job and his counselors becomes ever wider. Job's insistence on appealing directly to God, first stated here, becomes a central theme that will ultimately be answered when God finally speaks from the whirlwind in chapter 38.

Key Issues

Worthless Physicians

When a man is gravely ill, the last thing he needs is a doctor who refuses to examine him, consults a dusty textbook from a century ago, and pronounces a diagnosis that fits the book but not the patient. This is precisely what Job's friends have done. They came with the right textbook, which contains the general truth that God punishes sin. But they are quacks because they refuse to look at the actual patient, Job, whose life testifies to righteousness. Instead of adjusting their application of the principle, they try to adjust the facts of Job's life, accusing him of secret sins to make him fit their tidy system.

Job calls them "worthless physicians." Their medicine is poison. Their comfort is affliction. Their wisdom is folly. This is a permanent warning to all who would counsel the suffering. Our first task is not to defend a theological system, but to listen. Our first instinct should not be to speak, but to weep. And when we do speak, our words must be tailored to the person, not just recited from a script. The friends thought they were defending God, but they were actually defending their small, manageable idea of God. And in the process, they were slandering both Job and the God he served.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1-2 “Behold, my eye has seen all this; My ear has heard and understood it. What you know I also know; I have not fallen short of you.

Job begins by leveling the playing field. His friends have been speaking to him as though he were a simpleton, a spiritual novice who needed to be instructed in the ABCs of theology. Job dismisses this entirely. He says, in effect, "I've been around. I've seen how the world works. I've heard all your arguments before. I am your peer." He is not rejecting their counsel because he is ignorant, but rather because he is not. He knows their tidy retribution theology, and he also knows that it does not fit the facts of his case, or the facts of the world he has observed. He is not inferior to them in wisdom, and so their condescension is entirely misplaced.

3 “But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God.

This is the central pivot of the chapter. Job is done with these human intermediaries. He wants to appeal to the highest court. He is firing his incompetent lawyers and has decided to represent himself before the Supreme Judge. The word "argue" here is a legal term; it means to present a case, to reason, to plead. This is not the fist-shaking of an arrogant rebel. It is the desperate plea of a man who believes so strongly in God's ultimate justice that he is convinced that if he could only get a fair hearing, he would be vindicated. He wants to bypass the bureaucracy and speak to the King.

4 But you cover me with lies; You are all worthless physicians.

Here is the direct accusation. The Hebrew for "cover me with lies" can also be translated as "plasterers of lies." They are not just mistaken; they are actively smearing him with falsehoods. They are covering up the truth of his integrity with the mud of their accusations. And this makes them worthless physicians. A doctor who applies a poultice of mud to a gaping wound is a quack. Their diagnosis is wrong (secret sin), and their treatment is malpractice (a call for disingenuous repentance). They are making the patient sicker.

5 O that you would be completely silent, And that it would become your wisdom!

This is a magnificent piece of sanctified sarcasm. Job's best advice for these counselors is that they shut their mouths. Their only path to being considered wise is to stop talking. There is a profound truth here. In situations of deep and inexplicable suffering, silence is often the most profound expression of wisdom and love. Their constant stream of ill-fitting platitudes was a torment, and Job rightly identifies that their reputation would be much improved if they simply sat with him in silent sympathy, as they had at the very beginning.

6 Please hear my argument And give heed to the contentions of my lips.

Having told them to be silent, he now asks them to listen. If they cannot offer wise counsel, the least they can do is provide a listening ear. He wants them to hear his actual case, his argument, not the straw man version they have constructed in their own minds. He is pleading for the basic courtesy of being heard before being condemned.

7-8 Will you speak what is unrighteous for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him? Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God?

Job now turns from their incompetence to their impiety. This is the heart of his prosecution against them. He accuses them of the high crime of lying for God. They are so eager to defend their doctrine of God's justice that they are willing to speak unrighteously and deceitfully to do it. They are showing "partiality" for God, as a corrupt judge would for a powerful litigant. They think they are God's defense attorneys, but God does not need, and certainly does not want, a defense built on falsehood. To flatter God, to rig the court in His favor, is to insult His perfect and impartial justice. God is not a petty tyrant who needs his toadies to cover for him.

9 Will it be well when He examines you? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man?

Job issues a severe warning. They are acting as though God is not listening. He asks them to consider what will happen when God puts them on the witness stand. Will their arguments hold up under divine cross-examination? The question is rhetorical and devastating. They may be able to fool other men, but they cannot fool God. He sees their "pious" lies for what they are. Their attempt to curry favor with God will backfire spectacularly.

10 He will surely reprove you If you secretly show partiality.

Job is confident in the verdict. God Himself will rebuke them. Their sin is that they secretly show partiality. In their hearts, they are not truly concerned with God's honor, but with their own theological comfort. They are siding with their idea of God against the facts presented by Job's life. This is a secret bias, a hidden corruption, and Job knows that the God of justice will expose it and condemn it.

11 Will not His exaltedness terrify you, And the dread of Him fall on you?

The root of their problem is a lack of true fear of God. They speak about God with a kind of glib confidence, as though they have Him all figured out. Job asks, aren't you terrified? Don't you feel the dread of His majesty? A true apprehension of God's holiness and sovereignty would make a man tremble. It would make him exceedingly careful with his words. It would shut the mouth of easy answers and cheap platitudes. Their lack of terror before God is the reason they can speak so foolishly on His behalf.

12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes; Your defenses are defenses of clay.

Job concludes his indictment with a final dismissal of their wisdom. All their wise-sounding maxims and traditional sayings are like proverbs of ashes. They are the burnt-out remains of truth, dusty, lifeless, and useless. And their arguments, their "defenses," are like bulwarks made of wet clay. They look solid for a moment, but under the slightest pressure, they will collapse into a mud puddle. Their counsel is worthless because it is both untrue to Job's situation and dishonoring to God's character.

Application

The errors of Job's friends are perennial temptations for all believers, and especially for those who love theology. The first temptation is to love our system more than we love our brother. When a suffering person's story doesn't fit our neat theological boxes, we are tempted, like the friends, to hammer the person to fit the box, rather than re-examining our application of the truth. We must never sacrifice a person on the altar of a tidy doctrine.

The second temptation is to believe that God needs our spin. We think we are doing God a favor by defending Him with clever arguments that sometimes bend the truth or ignore inconvenient facts. This is a profound insult to the God of truth. God's reputation is not fragile. He does not need us to lie for Him, and as Job warns, He will judge those who do. Our duty is to speak the truth in love, even when that truth is complex, difficult, or involves admitting that we do not have all the answers.

Finally, Job teaches us where our ultimate appeal lies. When human counsel fails, when friends become accusers, and when circumstances scream that God is unjust, the man of faith does what Job did. He appeals to God against God. He takes his case to the highest court, trusting that the Judge of all the earth will do right. We, on this side of the cross, know something Job did not. We know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He does not argue our case with defenses of clay, but pleads His own blood. He is the perfect physician, and His wisdom is never silent when we need it most.