Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 13:9
Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye [so] mock him?
9. Is it good ] The words may mean, will it be well (for you) that He should search (or, when He shall search)? or as ch. Job 10:3, do you like that He should search you out? The second clause should read,
Or as one deceiveth a man will ye deceive Him?
When God searches you out and looks into the secret springs of your actions do you expect to be able to deceive Him by representations or demeanour or look as one imposes on a man, who cannot “read the mind’s construction in the face”?
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Is it good that he should search you out? – Would it be well for you if he should go into an investigation of your character, and of the arguments which you adduce? The idea is, that if God should make such an investigation, the result would be highly unfavorable to them. Perhaps Job means to intimate that, if they were subjected to the kind of trial that he had been, it would be seen that they could not bear it. Or as one man mocketh another. The idea here is, it is possible to delude or deceive man, but God cannot be deceived. You may conceal your thoughts and motives from man, but you cannot from God. You may use arguments that may impose upon man – you may employ fallacies and sophisms which he cannot detect, but every such effort is vain with God; compare Gal 6:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Is it good that he should search you out?] Would it be to your credit if God should try your hearts, and uncover the motives of your conduct? Were you tried as I am, how would you appear?
Do ye so mock him?] Do ye think that you can deceive him; and by flattering speeches bring him to your terms, as you would bring an undiscerning, empty mortal, like yourselves?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Is it good? will it be to your credit and comfort?
Search you out, i.e. narrowly examine your hearts and discourses, whether you have uttered truth or falsehood, and whether your speeches proceed from true zeal for God, or from your own prejudices and passions, and from a desire to curry favour with him.
Do ye so mock him, to wit, by covering your uncharitableness and corrupt affections with pretences of piety, as if God could not discern your artifices; or by pleading his cause with weak and foolish arguments, which is a kind of mockery to him, and an injury to his cause; or by seeking to flatter him with false praises, as if he did distribute the things of this world with exact justice, prospering only the good, and severely afflicting none but wicked men?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Will the issue to you begood, when He searches out you and your arguments? Will you beregarded by Him as pure and disinterested?
mock (Ga6:7). Rather, “Can you deceive Him as one man?” &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Is it good that he should search you out?…. That is, God; searching is ascribed to him after the manner of men; not that he is ignorant of persons or things he searches after, or exercises that application, diligence, and industry, and takes those pains which are necessary in men to find out anything; when he makes search, it is not on his own account, but others; at least it is only to show his knowledge of persons and things, and to make men known to others, or things to them themselves; and is here to be understood in a judicial sense, as it frequently is the case, so it was here, a man that is “first in his own cause”, as the wise man says, Pr 18:17, “seemeth just”; to himself and others; it looks upon the representation he makes of things as if he was in the right: “but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him”; traverses his arguments in his own vindication, and shows the fallacy of them; so Job’s friends, making the worst of his cause, and the best of their own, seemed right in their own eyes; but God, who is the searcher of hearts, and who knows all things, could see through their coverings of things, and could not be deceived by them, but would find them out, and expose them; as he did afterwards, when he gave judgment against them, and declared they had not said that which was right, as his servant Job had, Job 42:7; and therefore it was not to their profit and advantage, and to their honour and credit, to be searched out by him, or to run the risk of it, as they did, which is the amount of this question:
or as one mocketh another, do ye [so] mock him? men may be mocked by their fellow creatures, either by words or gestures, as good men usually are in all ages, especially the prophets of the Lord, and the ministers of his word; or they may he deceived and imposed upon by the false glosses and colourings of artful men, as simple men are deceived by the fair speeches of false teachers, which is no other than an illusion of them, or mocking them: in the first sense God may be mocked, though he should not; there have been and will be such bold and daring creatures as to mock at his promises and his providence, to mock at his word, ordinances, and ministers, which is interpreted by him a mocking and despising himself; but in the latter sense he cannot be mocked, and it is a vain thing to attempt it; “be not deceived, God is not mocked”, Ga 6:7; he sees through all the fallacious reasonings of men; he judges not according to outward appearance; he sees and knows the heart, and all the views and designs of men, and can detect all their sophisms and false glosses; he is not to be deceived by specious pretences of doing such and such actions for his glory, as casting out good men, and their names, or traducing their characters that he may be glorified, or killing them to do him service, Isa 66:5; he is not to be flattered as one man may flatter another; to do this with him, is to mock him, he is not to be mocked in this way.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) As one man mocketh another.As one man, with mingled flattery and deception, seeks to impose upon another.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Search you out Better, Search you through to the bottom. The natural heart, like birds of the night, abhors the light. It closes its every avenue against God. Its “chambers of imagery” are so filled with deceit, passion, lust, pride, envy its idolatrous walls so traced with every form of creeping thing, (Eze 8:12,) as to render God’s searching presence the greatest of conceivable evils. A good man, on the other hand, desires to know the worst of himself. His prayer is: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 13:9. Is it good, &c. Is it right for you to pay false adulation to him? Houbigant; who observes, that the word adulate, in this clause, properly corresponds with mock in the next.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye [so] mock him?
Ver. 9. Is it good that he should search you out &c. ] q.d. Could you have any joy from such a search? Will not all your warpings and partialities, your colloguing and sinisterity, be laid open to your loss and shame? Will not God reprove instead of approving you in that which ye have said for him, but all against me? The time will come when God will surely search out all controversies, that they all may be ashamed who, under a pretext of religion and right, have spoken false things, and subverted the faith of some. See 1Co 3:17 .
Or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Is it . . . ? Figure of speech, Erotesis. App-6.
mocketh = befooleth.
another. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
search: Job 34:36, Psa 44:21, Psa 139:23, Jer 17:10
as one: Job 17:2, Isa 28:22, Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8
Reciprocal: Job 11:3 – mockest Job 21:3 – mock on Mat 27:41 – General Mar 15:19 – they smote
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 13:9-10. Is it good that he should search you out? Will it be to your credit and comfort, that he should narrowly examine your hearts and discourses, whether you have uttered truth or falsehood, and whether your speeches have proceeded from true zeal for the glory of God, or from your own prejudices and passions? Do ye so mock him? By covering your uncharitableness and corrupt affections with pretences of piety, as if God could not discern your artifices; or, by pleading his cause with weak and foolish arguments, which is a kind of mockery of him, and an injury to his cause; or, by seeking to flatter him with false praises, as if he distributed the things of this world with exact justice, prospering only the good, and severely afflicting none but wicked men. He will surely reprove you Hebrew, , hocheach, jocheach, redarguendo redarguet, in confuting, he will confute you; that is, he will surely confute, or punish you, as the word often means. He will severely chastise you, for designing to gratify him by condemning me. Bishop Patrick. If ye do secretly accept persons Though it be concealed in your own breasts, and no eye see it; yea, though your own minds and consciences, through ignorance or inadvertency, do not perceive it; yet he, who is greater than your consciences, sees and knows it.