Job 13:8

_WILL YE ACCEPT HIS PERSON? WILL YE CONTEND FOR GOD?_ Accept his person - God's; i:e., be partial for Him, as when a judge favours one party in a trial, because of personal considerations. CONTEND FOR GOD - namely, with fallacies and prepossessions against Job before judgment (Judges 6:31). Partiality can never please the impartial God; nor the goodness of the cause excuse the unfairness of the arguments....

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 13:8. _WILL YE ACCEPT HIS PERSON?_] Do you think to act by him as you would by a _mortal_; and, by telling lies in his favour, attempt to conciliate his esteem?...

WILL YE ACCEPT HIS PERSON? - That is, will you be partial to him? The language is such as is used in relation to courts of justice, where a judge shows favor to one of the parties on account of birth, rank, wealth, or personal friendship. The idea here is, “will you, from partiality to God, maintain unjust principles, and defend positions which are really untenable?” There was a controversy between Job and God. Job maintained that he was punished too severely; that the divine dealings were unequal and disproportioned to his offences. His friends, he alleges, have not done justice to the arguments which he had urged, but had taken sides with God against him, no matter what he urged or what he said. So little disposed were they to do justice to him and to listen to his vindication, that no matter what he said, they set it all down to impatience, rebellion, and insubmission. They assumed th...

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...

WILL YE ACCEPT HIS PERSON?.... Accepting persons ought not to be done in judgment by earthly judges; which is done when they give a cause to one through favour and affection to his person, because rich, or their friend, and against another, because otherwise; and something like this Job intimates his friends did in the present case; they only considered what God was, holy, just, wise, and good in all he did, and so far they were right, and too much respect cannot be given him; but the fault was, that they only attended to this, and did not look into the cause of Job itself, but wholly neglected it, and gave it against him, he being poor, abject, and miserable, on the above consideration of the perfections of God; which looked like what is called among men acceptation, or respect of persons: WILL YE CONTEND FOR GOD? it is right to contend for God, for the being of God against atheists, f...

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)

Severe rebuke of the three friends, in which (1) they are charged with partiality for God, and with acting the advocate for Him (Job 13:6); and (2) they are threatened with the chastisement of God for their insincerity, and for falsely pleading even in God's behalf (Job 13:9)....

WILL YE CONTEND FOR GOD— The Hebrew for _contend_ is a judicial term, and oftentimes used for putting a sentence in execution. Of this there is a particular instance in the case of Gideon, who was demanded by the men of his city to be put to death for casting down the altar of Baal, Judges 6:31.; where, though our translators render it _plead,_ the sense necessarily requires it to be rendered _execute vengeance;_ for the question was, not about _pleading,_ but instantaneously putting to death. _If he be a God, let him execute vengeance for himself._ Job here convicts his friends of wickedness; of taking upon them to defend God in an improper manner, as if he needed their rash censures to vindicate the ways of his providence. This was such a fault as they had but too much reason to fear might, one time or other, draw down his severe chastisements on their own heads. He