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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 13:7 - 13:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
7 Will ye speak what is wrong for God,
And speak what is deceitful for Him?
8 Will ye be partial for Him,
Or will ye play the part of God's advocates?
9 Would it be pleasant if He should search you out,
Or can ye jest with Him, as one jesteth with men?
10 He will surely expose you
If ye secretly act with partiality.
11 Will not His majesty confound you,
And His fear fall upon you?
Their advocacy of God - this is the thought of this strophe - is an injustice to Job, and an evil service rendered to God, which cannot escape undisguised punishment from Him. They set themselves up as God's advocates (לָאֵל רִיב, like לַבַּעַל רִיב, Jdg 6:31), and at the same time accept His person, accipiunt (as in acceptus = gratus), or lift it up, i.e., favour, or give preference to, His person, viz., at the expense of the truth: they are partial in His favour, as they are twice reminded and given to understand by the fut. energicum תִּשָּׂאוּן. The addition of בַּסֵּתֶר (Job 13:10) implies that they conceal their better knowledge by the assumption of an earnest tone and bearing, expressive of the strongest conviction that they are in the right. They know that Job is not a flagrant sinner; nevertheless they deceive themselves with the idea that he is, and by reason of this delusion they take up the cause of God against him. Such perversion of the truth in majorem Dei gloriam is an abomination to God. When He searches them, His advocates, out (חָקַר, as Prov.Job 28:11), they will become conscious of it; or will God be mocked, as one mocketh mortal men? Comp. Gal 6:7 for a similar thought. חָתֵל is inf. absol. after the form תָּלַלּ, and תְּהָתֵלּוּ is also to be derived from תָּלַלּ, and is fut. Hiph., the preformative not being syncopated, for תָּתֵלּוּ (Ges. §53, rem. 7); not Piel, from הָתַל (as 1Ki 18:27), with the doubling of the middle radical resolved (Olsh. in his Lehrb. S. 577). God is not pleased with λατρεία (Joh 16:2) which gives the honour to Him, but not to truth, such ζῆλος Θεοῦ ἀλλ ̓ ου ̓ κατ ̓ ἐπίγνωσιν (Rom 10:2), such advocacy contrary to one's better knowledge and conscience, in which the end is thought to sanctify the means. Such advocacy must be put to shame and confounded when He who needs no concealment of the truth for His justification is manifest in His שְׂאֵת, i.e., not: in the kindling of His wrath (after Jdg 20:38; Isa 30:27), but: in His exaltation (correctly by Ralbag: התנשׂאותו ורוממותו), and by His direct influence brings all untruth to light. It is the boldest thought imaginable, that one dare not have respect even to the person of God when one is obliged to lie to one's self. And still it is also self-evident. For God and truth can never be antagonistic.