CHAPTER 13 Dec. 11 
Job Continues His Speech
Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it. 2What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you. 3Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God. 4But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value. 5Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise. 6Hear  now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips. 7Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for Him? 8Will you show partiality to Him? Will you contend for God? 9Is it good that He should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive Him? 10He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality. 11Shall not His majesty make you afraid, and His dread fall on you? 12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your defences are defences of clay. 13Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will. 14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand? 15Even if He slays me, still I will trust in Him. Nevertheless, I will justify my ways  before Him. 16This also shall be my salvation, in that a Godless man shall not come before Him. 17Hear diligently my speech. Let my declaration be in Your ears. 18See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous. 19Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit. 20Only don’t do two things to me; then I will not hide myself from Your face: 21withdraw Your hand far from me; and don’t let Your terror make me afraid. 22Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and You answer me. 23How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin. 24Why do You hide Your face, and hold me for Your enemy? 25Will You harass a driven leaf? Will You pursue the dry stubble? 26For You write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth: 27You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a mark on the soles of my feet, 28though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten. 

Commentary

13:15 Even if He slays me, still I will trust in Him- The language of 'slaying' takes us back to the Mosaic commands about how a 'slayer' of a man might be killed by the 'avenger of blood' (Dt. 19:6). Job saw God as slaying him; yet he also sees God as the 'witness' in the case (16:19), and the avenger of Job's blood (19:25). Job even asks God to not let the earth cover his blood, so that God as the avenger of Job's blood may avenge Job's death (16:18). Job does not see 'Satan' as his slayer, and God as the avenger of his blood. Instead Job- in a quite breathtaking set of associations- sees God in all these things: the slayer, the legal witness to the slayer, the avenger of blood, and the One who will enforce the doing of justice in this case, the One who will not let the earth cover Job's blood. If Job really believed in a superhuman Satan, in Satan as the bad guy and God as the avenger of the injustice, he surely would've expressed himself differently. As Job imagines God as it were taking vengeance on Himself, so he came to portray for all time the way that evil and good are indeed both ultimately from God.
13:20-22 This alludes to the fall of Adam in Eden. Job was recognizing that he had sinned, that he knew that the sense of spiritual limbo he was in paralleled Adam's hiding from God in Eden, but that he would only respond to God's call and come out of hiding to confess his sin as he knew God wanted him to, if God withdrew His hand- i.e. relieved him of the immediate trials he was then experiencing. Thus Job was trying to barter with God- wanting Him to withdraw the trials in return for Job making the confession which he knew God wanted. See on 10:9; 14:20. In various but differing ways, we all madly struggle against the call to totally repent; whether by pure stubbornness, misinterpreting Scripture, or whatever twisted logic and sophistry. One lesson of the book of Job is the way God seeks to bring us to total and utter repentance.
13:27 The mark on him that was a witness wherever he went echoes that which God put on Cain. God's preservation of Cain from death also finds a parallel in Job's feeling that God is preserving him unnaturally (3:21-23; 10:9-15). As with the similarities with Adam (see on 10:9), Job complains that although he is associated with Cain, this is not really fair. "You set a mark on the soles of my feet" because, Job complains, God observes him with unnecessary detail. Zophar possibly recognized that Job was like Cain in that his face had fallen and he was so angry, although also fearful of God (Gen.4:5); he said that if Job repented he would lift up his face and not fear" (11:15). See on 16:17,18. As noted on 13:20-22, all feelings we have that our suffering is unfair is all part of our stubborn refusal to face the enormity and just consequences of our sin.