Job13chapter 13

Job turns on his friends with a legal accusation of his own. He calls them forgers of lies and physicians of no value, and asks whether they will 'speak wickedly for God' and talk deceitfully for him — that is, whether they will perjure themselves on God's behalf. In a world where court cases were decided at the town gate by testimony, false witness was among the gravest crimes, and he is charging them with it.

He then warns them that God will not be impressed by their partiality. Accepting a person's face — showing favour — was the standard term for a corrupt judge, and Job says the friends are behaving like advocates trying to curry favour with the bench.

'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him' sits in the middle of the chapter, and the Hebrew is genuinely difficult; the traditional rendering carries trust, while another reading has Job say he has no hope but will defend his ways anyway. Both readings agree on the next line, which is the point: he will maintain his own ways before God's face, because a hypocrite would never dare come there at all.

His two requests are the terms a defendant asked for: take your hand off me, and stop terrifying me — then call, and I will answer, or let me speak and you reply. The last section is the actual complaint, in the language of decay: a man consumed like a rotten thing, like a garment moths have eaten, and 'wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro?'