Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 31:35

"Oh that I had one to hear me! (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me); And [that I had] the indictment which mine adversary hath written!" — Job 31:35 (ASV)

O h that one would hear me!—The rendering noticed in the margin is probably the right one—Oh that I had one to hear me! Lo, here is my mark! That is, my signature, my declaration, which I am ready to subscribe; and oh that my adversary had written a book! More correctly, perhaps, “That I had the book or indictment that my adversary has written; I wish I had it in black and white before me, that I might deal with it accordingly, and answer it point to point.”

Here, then, is the same deviation from strict sequence of order that we observed in Job 29:18. Job 31:35–37 ought to come after Job 31:38-40; but the writer’s ideas of symmetry and order were not as ours, and this, in some respects, may be more natural, though, strictly speaking, less correct.