Job 13

¹ “Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it.

² What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.

³ “Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

⁴ But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.

⁵ Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

⁶ Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

⁷ Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?

⁸ Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?

⁹ Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

¹⁰ He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality.

¹¹ Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you?

¹² Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.

¹³ “Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

¹⁴ Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

¹⁵ Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

¹⁶ This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him.

¹⁷ Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.

¹⁸ See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

¹⁹ Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would hold my peace and give up the spirit.

²⁰ “Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:

²¹ withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

²² Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

²³ How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

²⁴ Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?

²⁵ Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?

²⁶ For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

²⁷ You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,

²⁸ though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Around Job 13

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Job as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

The storm comes at last. After chapters of grief, argument and silence from heaven, the LORD answers Job “out of the whirlwind”. He does not explain. He asks: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

How Job got there is the rest of the book. He is a good man who loses his children, his wealth and his health. Three friends come to comfort him and end up arguing that he must have sinned to suffer so much. Job insists he has not, and demands an answer from God.

A younger man, Elihu, adds his view. Then God speaks, not with an explanation but with questions about the making and running of the world. Job is humbled. God says that Job spoke rightly and the friends did not, and Job is restored.

Background

The story is set in the land of Uz, outside Israel, in a time that resembles the age of Abraham. Its author and date are unknown. The opening and closing are prose; everything between is poetry, some of the most demanding in the Bible.

How Christians read it

The book rejects the idea that suffering is always punishment for sin, without offering a full account of why people suffer. Readers differ on what God's answer means: a rebuke, a comfort, or an invitation to trust a wisdom larger than our own. The accuser in the opening chapters is understood by most Christian tradition as Satan; the Hebrew uses the word as a title. James 5:11 holds up Job as an example of endurance.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

Report a mistake