Job 13 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Job 13:1-2: 13:1-2 Job appealed to experience, as his comforters had done (3:12-17 ; 5:2 ).

Summary for Job 13:1-2: 13:1-2 ^a Job appealed to experience, as his comforters had done (3:12-17 ^b; 5:2 ^c).
Summary for Job 13:7-10: 13:7-10 ^d defending God with lies: False witnesses were forbidden even if speaking on God’s behalf (Exod 20:16 ^e).
13:12 ^f Ashes are worthless (cp. Isa 44:20 ^g).
Summary for Job 13:20-21: 13:20-21 ^h Job had contemplated finding an arbiter to remove God’s heavy hand (9:33-34 ⁱ). Eliphaz had urged Job to accept God’s chastening (5:17 ^j).
Summary for Job 13:22-23: 13:22-23 ^k Job wanted God to summon him, and then Job would answer in his own defense; or Job would speak to God, and then God would reply to substantiate the charges against Job. Since God did not take the first option, Job initiated the second one (13:23 ^l). Eventually, God did summon Job (38:1-3 ^m; 40:1-2 ⁿ), and Job was unable to reply (40:3-5 ^o).
13:24 ^p God can turn away in wrath (Deut 31:18 ^q; Isa 54:8 ^r; Jer 33:5 ^s) or refuse to show friendship (Pss 30:7 ^t; 69:17 ^u; 102:2 ^v).

• Job, perhaps playing on his own name (’iyyob), denied that he was God’s enemy (’oyeb).
13:25 ^w In the Old Testament, dry straw is a common image for what can be blown away (“chaff,” Ps 83:13 ^x; Isa 40:24 ^y; Jer 13:24 ^z) or burned (Exod 15:7 ^aa; Isa 47:14 ^ab; Mal 4:1 ^ac; see also “dry grass,” Isa 5:24 ^ad; 33:11 ^ae), or for what is weak (Job 41:20-21 ^af) and trifling (Isa 41:2 ^ag).