Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 13:1-12

"Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this], Mine ear hath heard and understood it. What ye know, [the same] do I know also: I am not inferior unto you. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies; Ye are all physicians of no value. Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace! And it would be your wisdom. Hear now my reasoning, And hearken to the pleadings of my lips. Will ye speak unrighteously for God, And talk deceitfully for him? Will ye show partiality to him? Will ye contend for God? Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceiveth a man, will ye deceive him? He will surely reprove you If ye do secretly show partiality. Shall not his majesty make you afraid, And his dread fall upon you? Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defences are defences of clay." — Job 13:1-12 (ASV)

After Job showed that the excellence of God's power could be known by experience, he concludes, “Behold, my eye has seen all these things and my ear has heard them.” It is as if he were saying: I know the previously described effects that show God’s strength and wisdom, partly by sight and partly by hearing.

Nor has my knowledge rested in these effects perceived by the senses. Instead, from them I have risen to an understanding of the truth. Thus, he says, “and I understood each one”—that is, what each effect demonstrated about God, or about His wisdom, understanding, counsel, or strength. Dismissing their boasting, by which they seemed to be placing themselves above him by declaring the great things of God, Job then says, “I also know in the same way you do” those things that relate to the magnificence of God, “nor am I inferior to you,” in the sense that I know these things less, or imperfectly, or as if I were learning them only from you.

Since Zophar had proposed God’s excellence (Job 11:6) as an argument against Job for daring to dispute with God, Job continues, “Yet let me speak to the Almighty.” It is as if he were saying: Although I understand the excellence of divine wisdom and power from His diverse effects no less than you do, I am still not reasonably deterred by this from my position. Rather, I want to address God, moved to open my heart to Him who is the searcher and judge of hearts, and to seek the truth from Him who is the teacher of all truth.

So he adds, “and I desire to dispute with him”—not to challenge God’s judgments, but to destroy your errors, which would imply that there is injustice in God. He continues, “First I will show that you are makers of lies,” because they had invented the lie that Job had led an evil life. They arrived at this lie because they were mistaken about the faith by which one worships God, believing that rewards for merits and punishments for sins happen only in this life. He therefore says, “and you are worshippers of perverse dogmas.” For whoever turns away from the true knowledge of God worships not God, but his own false doctrines.

When Job says, “first I will show you,” this should not be understood to mean that he will first destroy their corrupt doctrines in his speech and only afterward dispute with God. Rather, it means that while he intends to dispute with God, his primary intention is to destroy their doctrines.

People often propose things as provable, even though they are false. When they do not know how to defend or convincingly prove them, they reveal their ignorance when they speak. This was the case with Job’s friends. So he says, “Would that you were silent so that people would think you were wise men,” because the very fact that you inappropriately defend and try to prove false doctrines shows that you are foolish. Since you propose false doctrines and use inappropriate methods to prove them, you are in need of correction. This is what he concludes, saying, “Listen, then, to my correction,” by which I will correct your reasoning process, “and hear the judgment of my lips,” with which I will condemn your false doctrines.

First, Job intends to correct their flawed reasoning process. Since they had assumed that rewards and punishments for good and evil works are given in this present life, they found it necessary to use lies to defend God’s justice. Because it is evident that some innocent and righteous people are oppressed by adversity in this life, it was therefore necessary for them to attribute crimes to the righteous to defend God’s justice. Thus, they charged Job with impiety because they saw him afflicted.

But one who defends the truth with lies uses inappropriate means, so Job asks, “Do you think that God needs your lie?” It is as if to say: Is it necessary to use lies to defend divine justice? In fact, what cannot be defended except by lies cannot possibly be true. When someone strives to lie against the clear truth, he is compelled to invent some crafty and fraudulent means to disguise his lie with deception. So when these men also tried to lie against the righteousness of Job, which was clear to all, they used certain deceptions. Specifically, they pointed to human frailty, which easily falls into sin, and compared it to divine excellence, so that one might think it was more likely that Job was evil than that God was unjust. Job then asks, “so that you might speak deception for him?” because they were speaking with deceit on God’s behalf when they deceitfully tried to charge Job with impiety to defend God’s justice.

Job’s friends could respond, however, that they did not speak deceitfully against him, but only said what they thought. Job therefore shows that if this were true, they would be guilty of another vice, even if excused from deceit: namely, partiality (or “respect of persons”), which undermines the justice of a judge. Partiality consists in condemning or denying another’s apparent righteousness because of the greatness of a different person involved in the case, even without knowing the true justice of the matter.

If, therefore, Job’s friends judged him to be evil—though they saw righteousness clearly in him—and did so only out of consideration for God’s greatness, even though their own doctrines could not explain how Job could be justly punished by God, it is as if they were showing partiality to God in the judgment by which they condemned Job. So he then asks, “Do you take God’s part and try to judge for God?” He says this because a person who strives to judge on behalf of another, without knowing the facts of the case, will try to invent any means possible to make that person’s cause appear just.

Sometimes, a person who fraudulently defends another’s cause pleases the one being defended, even if that person is just. This can happen in two ways. First, the person being defended might be ignorant that his cause is unjust and is therefore pleased to have a defender. Job excludes this possibility in God’s case, asking, “Or will it please him (God)” that you strive to judge unjustly on His behalf? God cannot be ignorant of the case, and so Job adds, “from whom nothing can be concealed?”

Second, the person whose case is defended by fraud might be deceived by the defender’s fraudulent arguments into thinking his defense is just. Job also excludes this possibility regarding God, asking, “Or is he deceived like a man by your fraudulent practices?” Therefore, it is clear that God does not need a lie to defend His goodness and justice, because truth can be defended without a lie. It is also evident that if accepting the friends' doctrines leads to the inappropriate conclusion that God’s justice needs a lie for its defense, then their proposed teachings must be false.

One must also carefully consider that he who uses a lie to demonstrate the justice and goodness of God not only does something God does not need, but also offends God in the very act. Since God is truth and every lie is contrary to the truth, whoever uses a lie to show God’s magnificence acts against God. The Apostle Paul says this very clearly: “We are found to be false witnesses of God, because we have given testimony against God that He raised Christ to life who has not been raised if the dead are not raised” (1 Corinthians 15:15).

To say that God raised the dead, if this is not true, is to speak against God—even though it may seem to demonstrate divine power—because it is against the truth of God. Therefore, those who use a lie to defend God not only fail to receive a reward for pleasing Him, but they also merit punishment for acting against Him. So Job continues, “He Himself blames you because you took His part secretly.” He says “secretly” because although they seemed outwardly to take God’s side, as if they knew the justice of His actions, in their consciences they did not know by what justice Job had been punished. Thus, in the hidden part of their hearts, they showed partiality to God by trying to defend His justice falsely.

Job now shows how God will blame them, saying, “He will rouse himself immediately and he will throw you into confusion.” It is as if to say: Merely because you are not suffering adversity, you dispute God’s justice with a tranquil mind. But if tribulation comes upon you (which Job calls God “rousing himself,” since punishment is called the anger of God in Scripture), your minds will be thrown into confusion, especially because your faith is not firmly grounded in the truth.

Since they considered nothing good or evil except for temporal things, they avoided sin only so that nothing bad would happen to them. They seemed to serve God only from a fear of present evils. So Job says, “and his terror will rush upon you,” for you fear God only from the dread of experiencing evil now, and that is just what will happen to you, according to Proverbs: “What the unjust man fears will come upon him” (Proverbs 10:24).

Because they had vainly promised Job that he would live on in the memory of others even after death (Job 11:18), he in turn mockingly promises them the opposite, saying, “Your memory will be like ashes.” For just as ashes remain for only a short time after wood is burned, so a person’s reputation passes away quickly after death. Hence, it is futile to expect fame after death. They had also promised him permanence and reverence for his tomb (Job 11:19), but this he also dismisses as meaningless, promising them the contrary: “your necks will be cast down in the mud.” By their “necks,” he means their power and dignity, which he says will be thrown down “in the mud”—that is, to a weak and contemptible state.