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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 13:3 - 13:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
3 But I would speak to the Almighty,
And I long to reason with God.
4 And ye however are forgers of lies,
Physicians of no value are ye all.
5 Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace,
It would be accounted to you as wisdom.
6 Hear now my instruction,
Ando hearken to the answers of my lips!
He will no longer dispute with the friends; the more they oppose him, the more earnestly he desires to be able to argue his cause before God. אוּלָם (Job 13:3) is disjunctive, like ἀλλά, and introduces a new range of thoughts; lxx ου ̓ μήν δὲ ἀλλά, verum enim vero. True, he has said in Job 9 that no one can maintain his cause before God; but his confidence in God grows in proportion as his distrust of the friends increases; and at the same time, the hope is begotten that God will grant him that softening of the terror of His majesty which he has reserved to himself in connection with this declaration (Job 9:34, comp. Job 13:20.). The infin. absol. הֹוכֵחַ, which in Job 6:25 is used almost as a substantive, and indeed as the subject, is here in the place of the object, as e.g., Isa 5:5; Isa 58:6 : to prove, i.e., my cause, to God (אֶל־אֵל, like Job 13:15, אֶל־פָּנָיו) I long. With וְאוּלָם (Job 13:4) the antithesis is introduced anew: I will turn to God, you on the contrary (καὶ ὑμεῖς δὲ). Since the verb טָפַל, from its primary meaning to spread on, smear on (whence e.g., Talmudic טְפֵלָה, the act of throwing on, as when plastering up the cracks of an oven), cogn. תָּפַל (whence תָּפֵל, plaster, and perhaps also in the signification tasteless, Job 6:6 = sticky, greasy, slimy), does not signify, at least not at first, consuere, but assuere (without any relation of root with תָּפַר), we explain, not with Olshausen and others, concinnatores mendacii, such as sew together lies as patchwork; but with Hirzel and others, assutores mendacii, such as patch on lies, i.e., charge falsely, since they desire throughout to make him out to be a sinner punished according to his desert. This explanation is also confirmed by Job 14:17. Another explanation is given by Hupfeld: sarcinatores false = inanes, inutiles, so that שֶׁקֶר signifies what lies = what deceives, as in the parallel member of the verse אֱלִל,
(Note: In the Talmudic, the jugular vein, the cutting of which produces death, is called אֲלַל (later עצב, Arab. ‛ṣb), according to which (b. Chullin 121a) it is explained: healer of the jugular artery, i.e., those who try to heal what is incurable, therefore charlatans, - a strange idea, which has arisen from the defective form of writing אֱלִל. The lxx translates ἰαταὶ κακῶν.)
nothingness, and also עָמָל (Job 16:2) in a similar connection, is not an objective but attributive genitive; but Psa 119:69 is decisive against this interpretation of שֶׁקֶר טֹפְלֵי. The parallelism is not so exactly adjusted, as e.g., even רֹפְאֵי does not on account of the parallel with טֹפְלֵי signify patchers, ῥάπται, but: they are not able to heal Job's wounds with the medicine of consolation; they are medici nihili, useless physicians. Pro 17:28, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise,” applies to them, si tacuisses, sapiens mansisses; or, as a rabbinical proverb of similar meaning, quoted by Heidenheim, says, השׂגה בהשׂגה הלאות, “the fatigue of comprehension is comprehension,” i.e., the silent pause before a problem is half the solution. The jussive form וּתְהִי, it would be (Ges. §128, 2), is used in the conclusion of the wish. Thus he challenges them to hear his תִּוכַחַת (תֹּוכֵחָה) and his רִבֹוה. Hirzel is quite right when he says the former does not mean defence (justification), nor the latter proofs (counter-evidence); תוכחת is, according to his signification (significatus, in distinction from sensus), ἔλεγχος, correptio (lxx, Vulg.), and here not so much refutation and answer, as correction in an ethical sense, in correspondence with which רבות is also intended of reproaches, reproofs, or reprimands.