Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 13:16

"This also shall be my salvation, That a godless man shall not come before him." — Job 13:16 (ASV)

He also shall be my salvation. (Compare to Psalm 27:1 and following). It is characteristic of Job that, living, as he probably did, outside the community of Israel, he nevertheless shared the faith and knowledge of God’s chosen people; and this cannot be said of any other nation, nor does any literature give evidence of it. Indeed, it is this which most markedly distinguishes Job from his friends, because he can and does trust God unreservedly, in spite of all adverse circumstances, overwhelming as they were; while his friends are ignorant of the great central fact that He is Himself the sinner’s hope, and are content to rest only upon vague and bald generalities.

It is because, therefore, he has said, and can say, He is and will be my salvation, that he can also say, “I know that I shall be justified, that I am righteous, because I trust in Him” (Genesis 15:6). We do not, in thus speaking, import the Gospel into Job, but exhibit that in Job which had already been manifest in Abraham, and probably recorded of him.