Job 13:4

_BUT YE ARE FORGERS OF LIES, YE ARE ALL PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE._ Forgers of lies - literally, artful twisters of vain speeches (Umbreit)....

1-12 With self-preference, Job declared that he needed not to be taught by them. Those who dispute are tempted to magnify themselves, and lower their brethren, more than is fit. When dismayed or distressed with the fear of wrath, the force of temptation, or the weight of affliction, we should apply to the Physician of our souls, who never rejects any, never prescribes amiss, and never leaves any case uncured. To Him we may speak at all times. To broken hearts and wounded consciences, all creatures, without Christ, are physicians of no value. Job evidently speaks with a very angry spirit against his friends. They had advanced some truths which nearly concerned Job, but the heart unhumbled before God, never meekly receives the reproofs of men....

Verse Job 13:4. _YE ARE FORGERS OF LIES_] Ye frame deceitful arguments: ye reason sophistically, and pervert truth and justice, in order to support your cause. _PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE._] Ye are as feeble in your reasonings as ye are inefficient in your skill. Ye can neither heal the wound of my mind, nor the disease of my body. In ancient times every wise man professed skill in the healing art, and probably Job's friends had tried their skill on his _body_ as well as on his _mind_. He therefore had, in his argument against their teaching, a double advantage: Your skill in _divinity_ and _physic_ is equal: in the former ye are _forgers of lies_; in the latter, ye are _good-for-nothing_ physicians. I can see no reason to depart from the general meaning of the original to which the ancient versions adhere. The Chaldee says: "Ye are idle ph

BUT YE ARE FORGERS OF LIES - The word lies here seems to be used in a large sense, to denote sophisms, false accusations, errors. They maintained false positions; they did not see the exact truth in respect to the divine dealings, and to the character of Job. They maintained strenuously that Job was a hypocrite, and that God was punishing him for his sins. They maintained that God deals with people in exact accordance with their charactor in this world, all of which Job regarded as false doctrine, and asserted that they defended it with sophistical arguments invented for the purpose, and thus they could be spoken of as “forgers of lies.” PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE - The meaning is, that they had come to give him consolation, but nothing that they had said had imparted comfort. They were like physicians sent for to visit the sick, who could do nothing when they came; compare...

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...

BUT YE [ARE] FORGERS OF LIES,.... This is a hard and very harsh saying; Job was now in a passion, provoked by his friends, and retorts upon them what they had charged him with, Job 11:3; so often in controversies and disputes between good men undue heats arise, and unbecoming words drop from their lips and pens; to tell lies is a bad thing, but to forge them, to tell a studied premeditated lie, is dreadfully shocking, contrary to the grace of God, and which good men cannot allow themselves in, it is the character of bad men, see Isaiah 63:8; but it may be Job may not design lies in a strict and proper sense, but falsehoods and untruths; for though no lie is of the truth, yet every untruth is not a lie; because a man may deliver an untruth, not knowing it to be so, but taking it for a truth, speaks it, with

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 has shown that he can speak of God's working in the world; the friends, however, offer an apology for God, which He Himself must reject. I am not inferior to you in knowledge, says Job (Job 13:2). But I would speak and reason with God this you do not understand (Job 13:3). The friends had failed to diagnose his case (Job 13:4); his want is a fresh Divine revelation. They are plasterers of lies in their zeal for God. Their best wisdom were silence (Job 13:5) si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses. God, however, will not approve their respect of persons, their partiality in becoming His advocate (Job 13:8)

FORGERS OF. besmearers with. Occurs only here, Job 14:7 and Psalms 119:69....

_but ye are forgers of lies_ The _but_in Job 13:3 had for its background the knowledge of the Divine wisdom (Job 13:1); Job knows this well, _but_for all his knowledge of it he desires to plead his cause before God, he will speak unto the Almighty. This desire and purpose, however, are crossed by the thought of the use which his friends make of the Divine wisdom against him, and he is diverted from his great object to administer a rebuke to them _but_ye are forgers of lies. Job 13:4-12 are therefore a digression, the main object being resumed in Job 13:13; the digression, however, is profoundly interesting. In clause one Job tells his friends that t