Job 13:15

13:15 Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; ¹ 

I will surely ²  defend ³  my ways to his face!

Job 13:1

Job Pleads His Cause to God ⁴ 

13:1 “Indeed, my eyes have seen all this, ⁵ 

my ears have heard and understood it.

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁶  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁷  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Philippians 3:21

3:21 who will transform these humble bodies of ours ⁸  into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.

[13:15]  ¹ tn There is a textual difficulty here that factors into the interpretation of the verse. The Kethib is לֹא (lo’, “not”), but the Qere is לוֹ (lo, “to him”). The RSV takes the former: “Behold, he will slay me, I have no hope.” The NIV takes it as “though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” Job is looking ahead to death, which is not an evil thing to him. The point of the verse is that he is willing to challenge God at the risk of his life; and if God slays him, he is still confident that he will be vindicated – as he says later in this chapter. Other suggestions are not compelling. E. Dhorme (Job, 187) makes a slight change of אֲיַחֵל (’ayakhel, “I will hope”) to אַחִיל (’akhil, “I will [not] tremble”). A. B. Davidson (Job, 98) retains the MT, but interprets the verb more in line with its use in the book: “I will not wait” (cf. NLT).

[13:15]  ² tn On אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) see GKC 483 §153 on intensive clauses.

[13:15]  ³ tn The verb once again is יָכָה (yakhah, in the Hiphil, “argue a case, plead, defend, contest”). But because the word usually means “accuse” rather than “defend,” I. L. Seeligmann proposed changing “my ways” to “his ways” (“Zur Terminologie für das Gerichtsverfahren im Wortschatz des biblischen Hebräisch,” VTSup 16 [1967]: 251-78). But the word can be interpreted appropriately in the context without emendation.

[13:1]  ⁴ sn Chapter 13 records Job’s charges against his friends for the way they used their knowledge (1-5), his warning that God would find out their insincerity (6-12), and his pleading of his cause to God in which he begs for God to remove his hand from him and that he would not terrify him with his majesty and that he would reveal the sins that caused such great suffering (13-28).

[13:1]  ⁵ tn Hebrew has כֹּל (kol, “all”); there is no reason to add anything to the text to gain a meaning “all this.”

[1:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[3:21]  ⁸ tn Grk “transform the body of our humility.”