Job 13
The full text of Job 13 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 Look, my eye has seen all this,
my ear has heard and understood it.
2 What you know, I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3 But I would speak to the Almighty,
and I desire to argue my case with God.
4 As for you, you whitewash with lies;
you are all worthless physicians.
5 Oh that you would keep completely silent —
that would be your wisdom!
6 Hear now my argument,
and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak falsely for God
and speak deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality toward him?
Will you argue the case for God?
9 Will it go well when he examines you?
Can you fool him as you would fool a man?
10 He will surely rebuke you
if in secret you show partiality.
11 Will not his majesty terrify you?
Will not the dread of him fall on you?
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ash;
your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 Be silent before me that I may speak;
then let come on me what may.
14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
and put my life in my hand?
15 Though he kill me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face.
16 This itself will be my salvation —
that the godless cannot come before him.
17 Listen carefully to my words;
let my declaration be in your ears.
18 Behold, I have prepared my case;
I know that I shall be vindicated.
19 Who is it that will contend with me?
For then I would be silent and die.
20 Only grant me two things, O God,
and then I will not hide from your face:
21 withdraw your hand far from me,
and let not the dread of you frighten me.
22 Then call, and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23 How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make me know my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face
and count me as your enemy?
25 Will you frighten a driven leaf
and pursue dry chaff?
26 For you write bitter things against me
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27 You put my feet in the stocks
and watch all my paths;
you set a limit to the soles of my feet.
28 And one wastes away like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Translation notes (7)
- Job 13:4a The image is medical throughout: tofle sheqer, literally 'smearers of falsehood', pictures the friends plastering a wound with a useless salve, hence 'whitewash with lies'. In rofe elil, 'worthless physicians', the word elil elsewhere denotes idols (as in Leviticus 19:4), suggesting healers as empty as false gods.
- Job 13:12a The Hebrew gav (גַּב), literally 'back' or 'mound', is here taken as a figure for a defensive bulwark; some understand it as the raised boss of a shield. Job's taunt pairs efer, 'ash', with chomer, 'clay', declaring his friends' arguments as crumbling and fragile as the materials themselves.
- Job 13:14a The Hebrew expressions esa be-shinnai besari, 'take my flesh in my teeth,' and asim nafshi be-kappi, 'put my life in my hand,' are idioms for risking one's life in a desperate venture.
- Job 13:15a The Hebrew word is uncertain, as 'lo' can mean "not" or "to him/him." The Ketib (the written text) reads "I will not hope," while the Qere (the traditional reading) reads "I will hope in him." This ambiguity is intentional, allowing defiance and trust to coexist.
- Job 13:18a The clause employs Hebrew courtroom language: arakh, 'to set in order', with mishpat, 'case' or 'judgment', describes arranging arguments as a litigant prepares pleadings. Likewise etsdaq, 'I shall be vindicated', is a forensic form of the verb tsadaq, 'to be in the right', meaning to be declared innocent by the court rather than to be made morally righteous.
- Job 13:27a The Hebrew sad (סַד) denotes a wooden clamp securing a prisoner's feet, mentioned again in Job 33:11. In the final clause the verb chaqah, 'to carve' or 'engrave', is applied to the 'roots' of the feet; some interpreters understand an incised mark on the soles, such as identified a slave or prisoner, though the sense of a prescribed boundary is also possible.
- Job 13:28a Hebrew opens with hu, 'he', an abrupt shift from the first-person speech of the surrounding verses; most understand Job to speak of himself in the third person, hence the indefinite rendering "one". The Septuagint reads askos, 'wineskin', where the Masoretic Text has raqav, 'rot' or 'a rotten thing', likely picturing a worn skin-bottle rather than decayed matter.
About this translation
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