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Selected Verse: Job 13:22 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 13:22	Strong Concordance	Then call [07121] thou, and I will answer [06030]: or let me speak [01696], and answer [07725] thou me.
	King James	Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
call--a challenge to the defendant to answer to the charges. answer--the defense begun. speak--as plaintiff. answer--to the plea of the plaintiff. Expressions from a trial.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

call--a challenge to the defendant to answer to the charges.

answer--the defense begun.

speak--as plaintiff.

answer--to the plea of the plaintiff. Expressions from a trial.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Then call thou, and I will answer - Call me to trial; summon me to make my defense. This is language taken from courts of justice, and the idea is, that if God would remove his calamity, and not overawe him, and would then call on him to make a defense, he would be ready to respond to his call. The language means, "be thou plaintiff in the case, and I will enter on my defense." He speaks now to God not as to a judge but as a party, and is disposed to go to trial. See the notes at Job 9:33-35. Or let me speak, and answer thou me - "Let me be the plaintiff, and commence the cause. In any way, let the cause come to an issue. Let me open the cause, adduce my arguments, and defend my view of the subject; and then do thou respond." The idea is, that Job desired a fair trial. He was willing that God should select his position, and should either open the cause, or respond to it when he had himself opened it. To our view, there is something that is quite irreverent in this language, and I know not that it can be entirely vindicated. But perhaps, when the idea of a trial was once suggested, all the rest may be regarded as the mere filling up, or as language fitted to carry out that single idea, and to preserve the concinnity of the poem. Still, to address God in this manner is a wide license even for poetry. There is the language of complaint here; there is an evident feeling that God was not right; there is an undue reliance of Job on his own powers; there is a disposition to blame God which we can by no means approve, and which we are not required to approve. But let us not too harshly blame the patriarch. Let him who has suffered much and long, who feels that he is forsaken by God and by man, who has lost property and friends, and who is suffering under a painful bodily malady, if he has never had any of those feelings, cast the first stone. Let not those blame him who live in affluence and prosperity, and who have yet to endure the first severe trial of life. One of the objects, I suppose, of this poem is, to show human nature as it is; to show how good people often feel under severe trial; and it would not be true to nature if the representation had been that Job was always calm, and that he never cherished an improper feeling or gave vent to an improper thought.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Then call thou, and I will answer - Call me to trial; summon me to make my defense. This is language taken from courts of justice, and the idea is, that if God would remove his calamity, and not overawe him, and would then call on him to make a defense, he would be ready to respond to his call. The language means, "be thou plaintiff in the case, and I will enter on my defense." He speaks now to God not as to a judge but as a party, and is disposed to go to trial. See the notes at Job 9:33-35.

Or let me speak, and answer thou me - "Let me be the plaintiff, and commence the cause. In any way, let the cause come to an issue. Let me open the cause, adduce my arguments, and defend my view of the subject; and then do thou respond." The idea is, that Job desired a fair trial. He was willing that God should select his position, and should either open the cause, or respond to it when he had himself opened it. To our view, there is something that is quite irreverent in this language, and I know not that it can be entirely vindicated. But perhaps, when the idea of a trial was once suggested, all the rest may be regarded as the mere filling up, or as language fitted to carry out that single idea, and to preserve the concinnity of the poem. Still, to address God in this manner is a wide license even for poetry. There is the language of complaint here; there is an evident feeling that God was not right; there is an undue reliance of Job on his own powers; there is a disposition to blame God which we can by no means approve, and which we are not required to approve. But let us not too harshly blame the patriarch. Let him who has suffered much and long, who feels that he is forsaken by God and by man, who has lost property and friends, and who is suffering under a painful bodily malady, if he has never had any of those feelings, cast the first stone. Let not those blame him who live in affluence and prosperity, and who have yet to endure the first severe trial of life. One of the objects, I suppose, of this poem is, to show human nature as it is; to show how good people often feel under severe trial; and it would not be true to nature if the representation had been that Job was always calm, and that he never cherished an improper feeling or gave vent to an improper thought.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Then - This proposal savoured of self - confidence, and of irreverence towards God; for which, and the like speeches, he is reproved by God, Job 38:2-3, Job 40:2.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Then call thou - Begin thou first to plead, and I will answer for myself; or, I will first state and defend my own case, and then answer thou me.

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³³ Neither is [03426] there any daysman [03198] betwixt us, that might lay [07896] his hand [03027] upon us both [08147].
³⁴ Let him take [05493] his rod [07626] away [05493] from me, and let not his fear [0367] terrify [01204] me:
³⁵ Then would I speak [01696], and not fear [03372] him; but it is not so with me.

² Shall he that contendeth [07378] with the Almighty [07706] instruct [03250] him? he that reproveth [03198] God [0433], let him answer [06030] it.

² Who is this that darkeneth [02821] counsel [06098] by words [04405] without knowledge [01847]?
³ Gird up [0247] now thy loins [02504] like a man [01397]; for I will demand [07592] of thee, and answer [03045] thou me.