Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 13:11
Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
11. his excellency ] His majesty affright you. They shall be paralyzed when they stand before God who searches the heart.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shall not his excellency – His exaltation se‘eth from nasa’ to exalt, to lift up), or his majesty, Gen 49:3.
Make you afraid – Fill you with awe and reverence. Shall it not restrain you from fallacy, from sophisms, and from all presumptuous and unfounded reasoning? The sense here is, that a sense of the greatness and majesty of God should fill the mind with solemnity and reverence, and make us serious and sincere; should repress all declamation and mere assertion, and should lead us to adduce only those considerations which will bear the test of the final trial. The general proposition, however, is not less clear, that a sense of the majesty and glory of God should at all times fill the mind with solemn awe, and produce the deepest veneration. See Jer 5:22; Jer 10:7-10; Gen 28:17.
And his dread – The fear of him. You should so stand in awe of him as not to advance any sentiments which he will not approve, or which will not bear the test of examination. Rosenmuller, however, and after him Noyes, supposes that this is not so much a declaration of what ought to be, implying that the fear of God ought to produce veneration, as a declaration of what actually occurred – implying that they were actually influenced by this slavish fear in what they said. According to this it means that they were actuated only by a dread of what God would do to them that led them to condemn. Job without proof, and not by a regard to truth. But the common interpretation seems to me most in accordance with the meaning of the passage.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. His dread fall upon you?] The very apprehension of his wrath is sufficient to crush you to nothing.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His excellency; his infinite wisdom, which sees your secret falsehoods; and his justice and power, which can and will punish you for it.
Make you afraid of speaking rashly or falsely of his ways and counsels.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. make you afraid?namely,of employing sophisms in His name (Jer 10:7;Jer 10:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Shall not his excellency make you afraid,…. To commit sin, any sin, and particularly that just mentioned, which they might expect to be reproved for; there is an excellency in the name of God, which is fearful and dreadful, and in the nature and perfections of God, his power, justice, and holiness, in which he is glorious and tremendous, and should deter men from sinning against him; and there is an excellency in his works of nature and providence, which are wondrous, and show him to be near at hand, and can at once, if he pleases, take vengeance for sin: or “shall not his height” b, c. his sublimity, his superiority to all beings he is the most high God, higher than the highest among men, he is above all gods, all that are so called; and therefore all the inhabitants of the earth should stand in awe of him, and not sin: or “shall not his lifting up” c? c. on a throne of judgment, as the Targum adds he is the Judge of the whole earth, and will judge his people, and right their wrongs; he sits on a throne high, and lifted up, judging righteously; and will maintain the cause of the innocent, and avenge himself on those that injure them, and therefore it must be a fearful thing to fall into his hands: some render it, “shall not his burning” d; or flaming fire, c. as Jarchi observes, and apply it to hell fire, and the everlasting burnings of the lake which burns with fire and brimstone and which are very terrible, and may well frighten men from sinning against God; but the first sense seems to be best:
and his dread fall upon you? the dread of men, of powerful and victorious enemies, is very terrible, as was the dread of the Israelites which fell upon the inhabitants of Canaan, Jos 2:9; but how awful must be the terror of the great and dreadful God, when that falls upon men, or his terrible wrath and vengeance are revealed from heaven, and threaten every moment to fall upon the transgressors of his law, upon those that mock him and injure his people.
b “celsitudo ejus”, Montanus, Vatablus, Bolducius; “sublimitas ejus”, Beza, Mercerus. c “Elevatio, erectio”, Drusius. d So some in Jarchi & Bar Tzemach.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. His dread fall upon you Pineda gives, in this place, a Spanish proverb, The hill and the stones are God’s: that is, the vantage ground is his.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 13:11-12. Shall not his excellency, &c. His majesty shall wholly confound you, and his terror shall fall upon you; Job 13:12. Your boasting shall be like unto dust; your pride like a heap of sand, Job 13:13. Hear me in silence and I will speak; I will deliver that which hath been known to me. Houbigant. Heath renders the 12th verse, Are not your lessons empty proverbs? Your high-flown speeches, what are they, but heaps of dung? Job refers, says he, to those general maxims of the course of providence towards wicked men, which they had thrown out to insinuate to him that he was certainly guilty of some great wickedness, for which the wrath of God had overtaken him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 13:11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
Ver. 11. Shall not his excellency make you afraid? ] Heb. His highness, his majesty, his surpassing sublimity and transcendent glory; shall not this frighten you, and rein you in from wrongly dealing and warping? “Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain,” Jer 10:7 . And, “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence?” Jer 5:22 . If an earthly king be so dread a sovereign; if the glory of angels hath so terrified the best saints on earth, that they could hardly outlive such an apparition; what shall we think of the great and terrible God, as he is called, Neh 1:5 , the first motion of whose anger shall put men into disorder, and the brightness of his offended majesty strike your spirits with astonishment? It is reported of Augustus, the emperor, and likewise of Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, that in their eyes sate such a rare majesty, as a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing his own; and many in talking with them, and often beholding them, have become dumb (Turk. Hist. 236, 415). Now the Lord of glory as far outshineth any mortal wight as the sun in his strength doth a clod of clay; and this made Job cry out, Job 9:34 , “Let not his fear terrify me.” Be not thou a terror to me, O Lord, saith holy Jeremiah, Jer 17:17 ; and, The Lord most high is terrible, saith David, Psa 47:2 . Most high he is, and therefore terrible.
And his dread fall upon you?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Shall: Psa 119:120, Jer 5:22, Jer 10:10, Mat 10:28, Rev 15:3, Rev 15:4
his dread: Job 13:21, Exo 15:16, Isa 8:13
Reciprocal: Job 9:34 – let not Job 31:23 – by Mar 5:15 – and they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 13:11-12. Shall not his excellency His infinite wisdom, which sees your secret falsehood, and his justice and power, which can and will punish you for it; make you afraid? Of speaking rashly or falsely of his ways and counsels. Your remembrances Hebrew, , zichronechem, your memorials; or, as Chappelow translates it, memorabilia vestra, your remarkable things, your discourses, and arguments, and memorable actions; are like unto ashes Contemptible and unprofitable, Hebrew, , mishle epher, are parables or speeches of dust or ashes, mouldering, as it were, and coming to nothing. All that is most excellent and memorable in you; your wealth, and dignity, and wit, and reputation, or whatsoever it is for which you expect to be remembered, it is all but poor despicable dust and ashes; for, your bodies are like to bodies of clay Though they be not full of sores and biles as mine is, yet they are but dust, and to dust they shall return, as well as mine. The consideration of our mortality should make us afraid of offending God.