Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 13:7
Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
7. speak wickedly ] Or, wrongously, lit. speak iniquity, ch. Job 5:16, cf. Zophar’s recommendation to Job, ch. Job 11:14. For God means in His behalf, in His defence; and the words for God are emphatic.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Will ye speak wickedly for God? – That is, will you maintain unjust principles with a view to honor or to vindicate God? Job refers doubtless to the positions which they had defended in regard to the divine administration – principles which he regarded as unjust, though they had employed them professedly in vindicating God. The sense is, that unjust principles ought not to be advanced to vindicate God. The great cause of truth and justice should always be maintained, and even in attempting to vindicate the divine administration, we ought to make use of no arguments which are not based on that which is right and true. Job means to reproach his friends with having, in their professed vindication of God, advanced sentiments which were at war with truth and justice, and which were full of fallacy and sophistry. And is this never done now? Are sophistical arguments never employed in attempting to vindicate the divine government? Do we never state principles in regard to him which we should esteem to be unjust and dishonorable if applied to man? Do not good people sometimes feel that that government must be defended at all events; and when they can see no reason for the divine dealings, do they not make attempts at vindicating them, which are merely designed to throw dust in the eyes of an opponent, and which are known to be sophistical in their nature? It is wrong to employ a sophistical argument on any subject; and in reasoning on the divine character and dealings, when we come, as we often do, to points which we cannot understand, it is best to confess it. God asks no weak or sophistical argument in his defense; still less can he be pleased with an argument, though in defense of his government, which is based on unjust principles.
And talk deceitfully for him – Use fallacies and sophisms in attempting to vindicate him. Everything in speaking of God, should be true, pure, and sound. Every argument should be free from any appearance of sophism, and should be such as will bear the test of the most thorough examination. No honor is done to God by sophistical arguments, nor can he be pleased when such arguments are employed even to vindicate and honor his character.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 13:7
Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for Him?
Special religious pleaders
Job finds them guilty of speaking falsely as special pleaders for God, in two respects. They insist that he has offended God, but they cannot point to one sin which he has committed. On the other hand, they affirm positively that God will restore prosperity if confession is made. But in this, too, they play the part of advocates without warrant. They show great presumption in daring to pledge the Almighty to a course in accordance with their idea of justice. The issue might be what they predict; it might not. They are venturing on ground to which their knowledge does not extend. They think their presumption justified because it is for religions sake. Job administers a sound rebuke, and it extends to our own time. Special pleaders for Gods sovereignty and unconditional right, and for His illimitable good nature, alike have warning here. What justification have men in affirming that God will work out His problems in detail according to their views? He has given to us the power to apprehend the great principles of His working. There are certainties of our consciousness, facts of the world and of revelation, from which we can argue. Where these confirm we may dogmatise, and the dogma will strike home. But no piety, no desire to vindicate the Almighty, or to convict and convert the sinner, can justify any man in passing beyond the certainty which God has given him to that unknown which lies far above human ken. (R. A. Watson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Will ye speak wickedly for God?] In order to support your own cause, in contradiction to the evidence which the whole of my life bears to the uprightness of my heart, will ye continue to assert that God could not thus afflict me, unless flagrant iniquity were found in my ways; for it is on this ground alone that ye pretend to vindicate the providence of God. Thus ye tell lies for God’s sake, and thus ye wickedly contend for your Maker.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Will you utter falsehoods upon pretence of pleasing God, or of maintaining Gods honour or justice? Doth he need such defences?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. deceitfullyuse fallaciesto vindicate God in His dealings; as if the end justified the means.Their “deceitfulness” for God, against Job, was that theyasserted he was a sinner, because he was a sufferer.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Will you speak wickedly for God?…. As he suggests they did; they spoke for God, and pleaded for the honour of his justice, by asserting he did not afflict good men, which they thought was contrary to his justice; but: then, at the same time, they spoke wickedly of Job, that he being afflicted of God was a bad man, and an hypocrite; and this was speaking wickedly for God, to vindicate his justice at the expense of his character, which there was no need to do; and showed that they were poor advocates for God, since they might have vindicated the honour of his justice, and yet allowed that he afflicted good men, and that Job was such an one:
and talk deceitfully for him? or tell lies for him, namely, those just mentioned, that only wicked men, and not good men, were afflicted by him, and that Job was a bad man, and an hypocrite.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 ( , like , 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 . The addition of ( 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 ( , 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. is inf. absol. after the form , and is also to be derived from , and is fut. Hiph., the preformative not being syncopated, for (Ges. 53, rem. 7); not Piel, from (as 1Ki 18:27), with the doubling of the middle radical resolved (Olsh. in his Lehrb. S. 577). God is not pleased with (Joh 16:2) which gives the honour to Him, but not to truth, such (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 , i.e., not: in the kindling of His wrath (after Jdg 20:38; Isa 30:27), but: in His exaltation (correctly by Ralbag: ), 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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(7) Will ye speak wickedly for God?And now, in these verses, he gives utterance to a sublime truth, which shows how truly he had risen to the true conception of God, for he declares that He, who is no respecter of persons, desires to have no favour shown to Himself, and that in seeking to show favour they will greatly damage their own cause, for He is a God of truth, and by Him words as well as actions are weighed, and therefore nothing that is not true can stand any one in stead with Him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Second strophe Such is Job’s fiery indignation at the dishonesty and arrogance of the friends in assuming to be God’s advocates, that he still turns aside from his main purpose of appeal that he may chide them anew, Job 13:7-12.
7. Deceitfully In the sense of sophistically. Their sophism assumed the form of a dilemma either Job is a transgressor or God is unjust. But the dilemma necessarily failed in the latter condition, and thus the whole fell to the ground.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 13:7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
Ver. 7. Will ye speak wickedly for God? ] Ought ye to defend God’s justice by unjustly accusing me? Or must ye needs so free him from injustice, that ye must charge me with hypocrisy? Job had before called them physicians of no value; here he compareth them to lawyers of no conscience, that care not what they plead, so they may carry the cause of their client. But the Lord needeth no such advocates; he so loveth truth, that he will not borrow patronage to his cause from falsehood; he so hateth flattery (though it be of himself) that he hath threatened to cut off all flattering lips, Psa 12:3 ; and would one day say as much to Job’s friends, notwithstanding their pretended zeal for his glory, as once Alexander the Great did to Aristobulus the historian, who presented him with a flattering piece concerning his own worthy acts, which he extolled above measure; he cast the book into the river Hydaspes, and told the author he could find in his heart to cast him after it.
And talk deceitfully for him?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Will ye . . . ? Figure of speech, Erotesis. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 4:7, Job 11:2-4, Job 17:5, Job 32:21, Job 32:22, Job 36:4, Joh 16:2, Rom 3:5-8, 2Co 4:2
Reciprocal: Gen 27:20 – Because Gen 27:24 – I am Gen 27:35 – General Gen 34:13 – deceitfully 2Ki 10:18 – Jehu 2Ki 10:19 – But Jehu Job 19:29 – ye afraid Job 27:4 – General Job 36:2 – I have yet to speak Pro 18:5 – not Pro 30:6 – and Mat 26:10 – Why 1Co 15:15 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
13:7 Will ye speak {c} wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
(c) He condemns their zeal, who did not have knowledge, nor regarded they to comfort him, but always granted on God’s justice, as though it was not evidently seen in Job, unless they had undertaken the probation of it.