Job 13:16

He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) He also shall be my salvation.—Comp. Psalm 27:1, &c. It is characteristic of Job that, living, as he probably did, outside the pale of Israel, he nevertheless shared the faith and knowledge of God’s chosen people; and this cannot be said of any other nation, nor docs any literature give evidence of it. Indeed, it is this which most markedly distinguishes Job from his friends, in that he can and does trust God unreservedly, in spite of all adverse circumstances, overwhelming as they were; while his friends are ignorant of the great central fact that He is Himself the sinner’s hope, and are content to rest only upon vague and bald generalities. It is because, therefore, he has said, and can say, “He is and will be my salvation,” that he can also say, “I know that I shall be justified, that I am righteous, because I trust in Him” (Genesis 15:6). We do not, in thus speaking, import the Gospel into Job, but exhibit that in Job which had already been manifest in Abraham, and probably recorded of him.

Benson Commentary

Job 13:16. He also shall be my salvation — I rest assured that he will save me out of these miseries, sooner or later, one way or other, if not with a temporal, yet with an eternal salvation after death; of which he speaks Job 19:25. For a hypocrite — Or, rather, But a hypocrite shall not come before him — If I were a hypocrite, as you allege, I durst not present myself before him to plead my cause with him, as now I desire to do, nor could I hope for any salvation from or with him in heaven.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He also shalt be my salvation - See the notes at Isaiah 12:2. Literally, "He is unto me for salvation," that is, "I put my trust in him, and he will save me. The opportunity of appearing before God, and of maintaining my cause in his presence, will result in my deliverance from the charges which are alleged against me. I shall be able there to show that I am not a hypocrite, and God will become my defender."

For an hypocrite shall not come before him - This seems to be a proverb, or a statement of a general and indisputable principle. Job admitted this to be true. Yet he expected to be able to vindicate himself before God, and this gould prove that he was not an hypocrite - on the general principle that a man who was permitted to stand before God and to obtain his favor, could not be an unrighteous man. To God he looked with confidence; and God, he had no doubt, would be his defender. This fact would prove that he could not be an hypocrite, as his friends maintained.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. He—rather, "This also already speaks in my behalf (literally, 'for my saving acquittal') for an hypocrite would not wish to come before Him" (as I do) [Umbreit]. (See last clause of Job 13:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I rest assured that he will save me out of these miseries sooner or later, one way or other, if not with a temporal, yet with an eternal salvation after death; of which he speaks Job 19:25, &c.

For; or but, as this particle commonly signifies; for this clause is put by way of opposition to the former, and the sense is, But if I were a hypocrite, as you allege, I durst not present myself before him to plead my cause with him, as now I desire to do, nor could I hope for any salvation from or with him in heaven.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He also shall be my salvation,.... Job, though he asserted the integrity of his heart and life, yet did not depend on his ways and works for salvation, but only on the Lord himself; this is to be understood not of temporal salvation, though God is the author of that, and it is only to be had of him, yet Job had no hope concerning that; but of spiritual and eternal salvation, which God the Father has contrived, determined, and resolved on, and sent his Son to effect; which Christ being sent is the author of by his obedience, sufferings, and death; and in him, and in his name alone, is salvation; and every soul, sensible of the insufficiency of himself and others to save him, will resolve, as Job here, that he, and he only, shall be his Saviour, who is an able, willing, and complete one; see Hosea 14:3; and the words are expressive of faith of interest in him. Job knew him to be his Saviour, and living Redeemer, and would acknowledge no other; but claim his interest in him, now and hereafter, and which was his greatest support under all his troubles; see Job 19:26;

for an hypocrite shall not come before him; a hypocrite may come into the house of God, and worship him externally, and seem to be very devout and religious; and he shall come before the tribunal of God, and stand at his bar, to be tried and judged; but he shall not continue in the presence of God, nor enjoy his favour, or he shall not be able to make his cause good before him; and indeed he does not care to have himself examined by him, nor shall he be saved everlastingly, but undergo the most severe punishment, Matthew 24:51. Job here either has respect to his friends, whom he censures as hypocrites, and retorts the charge upon they brought on him; or he has reference to that charge, and by this means clears himself of it, since there was nothing he was more desirous of than to refer his case to the decision of the omniscient God, and righteous Judge; which if he was an hypocrite he would never have done, since such can never stand so strict and severe an examination.

Geneva Study Bible

He also shall be my salvation: for an {f} hypocrite shall not come before him.

(f) By which he declares that he is not a hypocrite as they charged him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. He also shall be] Rather, this also.

for a hypocrite shall not] Rather, that a godless man will not; see on ch. Job 8:13. A godless man will not dare to go before God; but Job dares and desires; and this courage, sweet evidence to himself of his innocence, he says will be his salvation, that is, will secure him victory in his plea with God. He hardly distinguishes between his own consciousness of innocence and his innocence itself and the proof of it. He is so conscious of it that he is sure it will appear before God, cf. Job 13:18 and the passage ch. Job 27:8 foll.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - He also shall be my Salvation. Whatever God does to him (ver. 13), whatever burden he lays upon him, though he even "slay" him (ver. 15), yet Job is sure that ultimately, in one way or another, God will be his Salvation. It is this determined trustfulness which at once gives Job's character its strength, and atones in a certain sense for his over-boldness in challenging God to a controversy. His heart is right with God. Though the secrets of the unseen world have been hidden from him, and the condition of man after death is a mystery on which he can only form vague conjectures, yet he is sure that in the end God will not fail him. For an hypocrite shall not come before him. If he were a hypocrite the case would be different; he would tremble before God, instead of feeling confident. But, knowing that he is honest and true, he is not afraid; he is bold to "come before him," and plead his cause before him. Job 13:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This is one of eighteen passages in which the Chethib is לא and the Keri לו; Job 6:21 is another.

(Note: In Frst, Concord. p. 1367, Colossians 1, the following passages are wanting: 1 Samuel 2:3; 2 Kings 8:10; Psalm 100:3; Psalm 139:16; Proverbs 19:7; Proverbs 26:2; 1 Chronicles 11:20, which are to be supplied from Aurivillius, diss. p. 469, where, however, on the other hand, 2 Samuel 19:7 is wanting. Exodus 21:8 also belongs to these passages. In this last passage Mhlau proposes a transposition of the letters thus: לא ידעה (if she displease her master, so that he knows her not, does not like to make her his concubine, then he shall cause her to be redeemed, etc.). In his volume on Isaiah just published (1866), Dr. Delitzsch appends the following note on Isaiah 63:9 : - "There are fifteen passages in which the Keri substitutes לו for לא, vid., Masora magna on Leviticus 11:21 (Psalter, ii. 60). If we include Isaiah 49:5; 1 Chronicles 11:20; 1 Samuel 2:16 also, there are then eighteen (comp. on Job 13:15); but the first two of these passages are very doubtful, and are therefore intentionally omitted, and in the third it is לא that is substituted for לו (Ges. Thes. 735, b). 2 Samuel 19:7 also does not belong here, for in this passage the Keri is לוּ." - Tr.])

In the lxx, which moreover changes איחל into החל, ἄρχεσθαι, the rendering is doubtful, the Cod. Vat. Translating ἐάν με χειρώσηται, the Cod. Alex. ἐὰν μή με χειρ. The Mishna b. Sota, 27, b, refers to the passage with reference to the question whether Job had served God from love or fear, and in favour of the former appeals to Job 27:5, since here the matter is doubtful (הדבר שׁקול), as the present passage may be explained, "I hope in Him," or "I hope not." The Gemara, ib. 31, a, observes that the reading לא does not determine the sense, for Isaiah 63:9 is written לא, and is not necessarily to be understood as לו, but can be so understood.

(Note: Vid., Geiger, Lesestcke aus der Mischnah (1845), S. 37f.)

Among the ancient versions, the Targ., Syr., and Jerome (etiamsi occiderit me, in ipso sperabo) are in favour of לו. This translation of the Vulgate is followed by the French, English, Italian, and other versions. This utterance, in this interpretation, has a venerable history. The Electoress Louise Henriette von Oranien (died 1667), the authoress of the immortal hymn, "Jesus meine Zuversicht" the English translation begins, "Jesus Christ, my sure defence," chose these words, "Though the Lord should slay me, yet will I hope in Him," for the text of her funeral oration. And many in the hour of death have adopted the utterance of Job in this form as the expression of their faith and consolation.

(Note: Vid., Gschel, Die Kurfrstinnen zu Brandenburg aus dem Hause Hohenzollern (1857), S. 28-32.)

Among these we may mention a Jewess. The last movement of the wasted fingers of Grace Aguilar was to spell the words, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

(Note: Marie Henriquez Morales, bearbeitet von Piza (1860), X. 12.)

The words, so understood, have an historic claim in their favour which we will not dispute. Even the apostles do not spurn the use of the Greek words of the Old Testament, though they do not accord with the proper connection in the original text, provided they are in accordance with sacred Scripture, and give brief and pregnant expression to a truth taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. Thus it is with this utterance, which, understood as the Vulgate understands it, is thoroughly Job-like, and in some measure the ultimate solution of the book of Job. It is also, according to its most evident meaning, an expression of perfect resignation. We admit that if it is translated: behold, He will slay me, I hope not, i.e., I await no other and happier issue, a thought is obtained that also agrees with the context. But יחל does not properly mean to hope, but to wait for; and even in Job 6:11; Job 14:14, where it stands as much without an object as here, it has no other meaning but that of waiting; and Luther is true to it when he translates: behold, He will destroy me, and I cannot expect it; it is, however, strange; and Bttch. translates: I will not wait to justify myself, which is odd. The proper meaning of יחל, praestolari, gives no suitable sense. Thus, therefore, the writer will have written or meant לו, since יחל ל is also elsewhere a familiar expression with him, Job 29:21, Job 29:23; Job 30:26. The meaning, then, which agrees both with the context and with the reality, is: behold, He will slay me, I wait for Him, i.e., I wait what He may do, even to smite with death, only I will (אך, as frequently, e.g., Psalm 49:16, does not belong to the word which immediately follows, but to the whole clause) prove my ways to Him, even before His face. He fears the extreme, but is also prepared for it. Hirzel, Heiligst., Vaihinger, and others, think that Job regards his wish for the appearing of God as the certain way of death, according to the belief that no one can behold God and not die. But יקטלני has reference to a different form of idea. He fears the risk of disputing with God, and being obliged to forfeit his life; but, as לו איחל implies, he resigns himself even to the worst, he waits for Him to whom he resigns himself, whatever He may do to him; nevertheless (אך restrictive, or as frequently אכן adversative, which is the same thing here) he cannot and will not keep down the inward testimony of his innocence, he is prepared to render Him an account of the ways in which he has walked (i.e., the way of His will) - he can succumb in all respects but that of his moral guiltlessness. And in Job 13:16 he adds what will prove a triumph for him, that a godless person, or (what is suitable, and if it does not correspond to the primary idea,

(Note: The verb חנף signifies in the Arabic to deviate, to go on one side (whence, e.g., ahhnaf, bandy-legged): hhanı̂f, which is derived from it, is a so-called Arab. ḍidd, ἐναντιόσημον, which may mean both one inclining to the good and true (one who is orthodox), and in this sense it is a surname of Abraham, and one inclining to evil. Beidhwi explains it by ml, inclining one's self to; the synonym, but used only in a good sense, is Arab. 'l-‛âdl, el-‛âdil.)

still accords with the use of the word) a hypocrite, one who judges thus of himself in his own heart, would not so come forward to answer for himself before God (Hahn). It can be explained: that a godless person has no access to God; but the other explanation givers a truer thought. הוא is here used as neuter, like Job 15:9; Job 31:28 comp. Job 41:3, Exodus 34:10. Correctly lxx, καὶ τοῦτό μοι ἀποβήσεται εἰς σωτηρίαν. ישׁוּעה here (comp. Job 30:15) has not, however, the usual deeper meaning which it has in the prophets and in Psalms. It means here salvation, as victory in a contest for the right. Job means that he has already as good as won the contest, by so urgently desiring to defend himself before God. This excites a feeling in favour of his innocence at the onset, and secures him an acquittal.