Job 13:18

13:13-22 Job resolved to cleave to the testimony his own conscience gave of his uprightness. He depended upon God for justification and salvation, the two great things we hope for through Christ. Temporal salvation he little expected, but of his eternal salvation he was very confident; that God would not only be his Saviour to make him happy, but his salvation, in the sight and enjoyment of whom he should be happy. He knew himself not to be a hypocrite, and concluded that he should not be rejected. We should be well pleased with God as a Friend, even when he seems against us as an enemy. We must believe that all shall work for good to us, even when all seems to make against us. We must cleave to God, yea, though we cannot for the present find comfort in him. In a dying hour, we must derive from him living comforts; and this is to trust in him, though he slay us.

Or "judgment" (t); that is, he had looked over his cause afresh, had reviewed the state of his case, had considered it in every light, had drawn a plan of it, had digested it in a proper manner, and had arranged his reasons and arguments in vindication of himself in a regular form; and had them at hand, and could readily and easily come at them on occasion, to vindicate himself; and upon the whole could say, in the strongest, manner, and could draw this conclusion, I know that I shall be justified; which, though it may primarily respect the case in dispute between him and his friends, and the charge of wickedness and hypocrisy brought against him by them, from which he doubted not he should upon a fair hearing be acquitted by God himself, yet it may include his whole state of justification, God-ward, in which he was and should continue; and so may respect, not only the justification of his cause before men, as it was ordered and managed by him, but also the justification of his person before God, of which he had a full assurance; having ordered his cause aright, settled matters well, and proceeded upon a good plan and foundation; which to do is not to put justification upon the foot of purity of nature at first birth, and a sober life and conversation from youth upward, and a perfection of good works arrived unto, as imagined; nor upon a comparative righteousness with respect to other men, even profane and ungodly persons; nor, upon repentance, and sincere though imperfect ob

Job 13:18-19 . Behold, now, I have ordered my cause — Namely, in my own mind. I have seriously considered the state of my case, what can be said, either for me or against me, and am ready to plead my cause. I know that I shall be justified — Acquitted by God of that hypocrisy and wickedness wherewith you charge me, and declared a righteous person, human infirmities excepted. Who is he that will plead with me? — Let who will come and accuse me, I am ready to answer. If I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost — My grief would break my heart, if I did not give vent to it.

Verse 18. - Behold now, I have ordered my cause ; i.e. I have prepared my pleadings, and arranged them; I know what I am about to say. Also I know that I shall be justified . I am confident, i.e. that the cause, if it be fully heard, will be decided in my favour. It will appear that I have not brought my calamities upon myself by my own misdoings. Of justification, in the forensic sense, of imputed righteousness, with its concomitant ideas, Job, of course, knows nothing. Job 13:18

I have ordered my cause, to wit, within myself. I have seriously and sincerely considered the state of my case, and what can be said either for me or against me, and am ready to plead my cause. Justified, i.e. acquitted by God from that hypocrisy and wickedness wherewith you charge me, and declared a righteous and innocent person, human infirmities excepted.

I have ordered my cause - literally. "judgment?" - משׁפט mı̂shpâṭ. The Septuagint renders it, "I am near (ἐγγύς εἰμί engus eimi) to my judgment," or my trial. The meaning may be, that he had gone through the pleading, and had said what he wished in self-vindication, and he was willing to leave the cause with God, and did not doubt the issue. Or more probably, I think, the word ערכתי ‛âraketı̂y should be taken, as the word ידעתי yāda‛tı̂y is, in the present tense, meaning "I now set in order my cause; I enter on the pleading; I am confident that I shall so present it as to be declared righteous." I know that I shall be justified - I have no doubt as to the issue. I shall be declared to be an holy man, and not a hypocrite. The word rendered "I shall be justified" (אצדק 'etsâdaq) is used here in the proper and literal sense of the word justify. It is a term of law; and means, "I shall be declared to be righteous. I shall be shown not to be guilty in the form charged on me, and shall be acquitted or vindicated." This sense is different from that which so often occurs in the Scriptures when applied to the doctrine of the justification of a sinner. Then it means, to treat one AS IF he were righteous, though he is personally guilty and undeserving.

17 Hear, O hear my confession, And let my declaration echo in your ears. 18 Behold now! I have arranged the cause, I know that I shall maintain the right. 19 Who then can contend with me? Then, indeed, I would be silent and expire. Eager for the accomplishment of his wish that he might himself take his cause before God, and as though in imagination it were so, he invites the friends to be present to hear his defence of himself. מלּה (in Arabic directly used for confession equals religion) is the confession which he will lay down, and אחוה the declaration that he will make in evidence, i.e., the proof of his innocence. The latter substantive, which signifies brotherly conduct in post-biblical Hebrew, is here an ἅπ. λεγ. from חוה, not however with Aleph prostheticum from Kal, but after the form אזכּרה equals הזכּרה, from the Aphl equals Hiphil of this verb, which, except Psalm 19:3, occurs only in the book of Job as Hebrew (comp. the n. actionis, אחויה, Daniel 5:12), Ewald, 156, c. It is unnecessary to carry the שׁמעוּ on to Job 13:17 (hear now ... with your own ears, as e.g., Jeremiah 26:11); Job 13:17 is an independent substantival clause like Job 15:11; Isaiah 5:9, which carries in itself the verbal idea of תּהי or תּבא (Psalm 18:7). They shall hear, for on his part he has arranged, i.e., prepared (משׁפּט ערך, causam instruere, as Job 23:4, comp.