Job 13:18

_BEHOLD NOW, I HAVE ORDERED MY CAUSE; I KNOW THAT I SHALL BE JUSTIFIED._ Ordered - implying a constant preparation for defense in his confidence of innocence....

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....

Verse Job 13:18. _BEHOLD NOW, I HAVE ORDERED_] I am now ready to come into court, and care not how many I have to contend with, provided they speak truth....

I HAVE ORDERED MY CAUSE - literally. “judgment?” - משׁפט _mı̂shpâṭ_. The Septuagint renders it, “I am near (ἐγγύς εἰμί _engus_ _eimi_) to my judgment,” or my trial. The meaning may be, that he had gone through the pleading, and had said what he wished in self-vindication, and he was willing to leave the cause with God, and did not doubt the issue. Or more probably, I think, the word ערכתי _‛__ârak__e__tı̂y_ should be taken, as the word ידעתי _yāda‛tı̂y_ is, in the present tense, meaning “I now set in order my cause; I enter on the pleading; I am confident that I shall so present it as to be declared righteous.” I KNOW THAT I SHALL BE JUSTIFIED - I have no doubt as to the issue. I shall be declared to be an

EXPOSITION JOB 13:1, JOB 13:2 The first two verses of Job 13:1. are closely connected with Job 12:1; forming the natural termination to the first section of Job's argument, that all results, whether good or evil, must be referred to God. Job 13:1 is little more than a repetition of Job 12:9 and Job 13:2 of...

BEHOLD NOW, I HAVE ORDERED [MY] CAUSE,.... Or "judgment" t; that is, he had looked over his cause afresh, had reviewed the state of his case, had considered it in every light, had drawn a plan of it, had digested it in a proper manner, and had arranged his reasons and arguments in vindication of himself in a regular form; and had them at hand, and could readily and easily come at them on occasion, to vindicate himself; and upon the whole could say, in the strongest, manner, and could draw this conclusion, I KNOW THAT I SHALL BE JUSTIFIED; which, though it may primarily respect the case in dispute between him and his friends, and the charge of wickedness and hypocrisy brought against him by them, from which he doubted not he should upon a fair hearing be acquitted by God himself, yet it may include his whole state of justification, God-ward, in which he was and should continue; and so ma...

CHAPTER S 12-14 JOB'S ANSWER TO ZOPHAR _ 1. His sarcasm (Job 12:1)_ 2. He describes God's power (Job 12:7) 3. He denounces his friends (Job 13:1) 4. He appeals to God (Job 13:14) 5. The brevity and trouble of life (Job 14:1) 6. The ray of light through hope of immortality (Job 14:7) Job 12:1. He answers not only Zophar but the others as well. Before this Job had expressed his

Job turns to plead his cause with God. He will speak whatever it costs (Job 13:13). This also, he says, shall be my deliverance, that a godless man will not come before Him. Job means that his deliverance must come, not as the friends say, from submission and confession, but from courageous self-defence. Job seems to gain confidence from his resolve to speak without fear. He feels that God, the natural protector of innocence, must in the end be on his side: Job's very boldness will appeal to His better nature. This is the first time that Job really shows confidence in God. Behind His wrath, he feels, there is something that is on his side. It seems as if Job's firm resolve to maintain his consciousness of innocence gave him a basis whence to feel after the true nature of God. Such is Job's confidence, as he prepares to plead his cause ...

ORDERED. set in order....

Job now turns from his friends, whom he commands to be silent, to his great plea with God, resuming the intention expressed in Job 13:3. The passage has two parts, one preliminary, Job 13:13, exhibiting a singular picture of the conflict between resolution and fear in Job's mind. He will go before God come upon him what will (Job 13:13). Yet he cannot hide from himself that it may be at the hazard of his life. Yet he will not be deterred; he will defend his ways to God's face (Job 13:14). And yet again, this very courage which he has, arising from his sense of innocence, is a token to him that he shall be victorious ...