Job 13:11

Job 13:11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

Ver. 11. Shall not his excellency make you afraid?] Heb. His highness, his majesty, his surpassing sublimity and transcendent glory; shall not this frighten you, and rein you in from wrongly dealing and warping? "Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain," Jer 10:7. And, "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence?" Jer 5:22. If an earthly king be so dread a sovereign; if the glory of angels hath so terrified the best saints on earth, that they could hardly outlive such an apparition; what shall we think of the great and terrible God, as he is called, Neh 1:5, the first motion of whose anger shall put men into disorder, and the brightness of his offended majesty strike your spirits with astonishment? It is reported of Augustus, the emperor, and likewise of Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, that in their eyes sate such a rare majesty, as a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing his own; and many in talking with them, and often beholding them, have become dumb (Turk. Hist. 236, 415). Now the Lord of glory as far outshineth any mortal wight as the sun in his strength doth a clod of clay; and this made Job cry out, Job 9:34, "Let not his fear terrify me." Be not thou a terror to me, O Lord, saith holy Jeremiah, Jer 17:17; and, The Lord most high is terrible, saith David, Psa 47:2. Most high he is, and therefore terrible.

And his dread fall upon you?] Some read the whole verse thus: Shall not this acceptation of him make you afraid, seeing his dread will fall upon you? q.d. Let the sense of your sin and the fear of his wrath, ready to seize upon you, deter you from passing an unrighteous sentence, and from harbouring such low conceits of God.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 13:11-12. Shall not his excellency — His infinite wisdom, which sees your secret falsehood, and his justice and power, which can and will punish you for it; make you afraid? — Of speaking rashly or falsely of his ways and counsels. Your remembrances — Hebrew, זכרניכם, zichronechem, your memorials; or, as Chappelow translates it, memorabilia vestra, your remarkable things, your discourses, and arguments, and memorable actions; are like unto ashes — Contemptible and unprofitable, Hebrew, משׁלי אפר, mishle epher, are parables or speeches of dust or ashes, mouldering, as it were, and coming to nothing. All that is most excellent and memorable in you; your wealth, and dignity, and wit, and reputation, or whatsoever it is for which you expect to be remembered, it is all but poor despicable dust and ashes; for, your bodies are like to bodies of clay — Though they be not full of sores and biles as mine is, yet they are but dust, and to dust they shall return, as well as mine. The consideration of our mortality should make us afraid of offending God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

make you afraid?--namely, of employing sophisms in His name (Jer 10:7, Jer 10:10).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. His dread fall upon you?] The very apprehension of his wrath is sufficient to crush you to nothing.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. his excellency] His majesty affright you. They shall be paralyzed when they stand before God who searches the heart.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall not his excellency make you afraid,.... To commit sin, any sin, and particularly that just mentioned, which they might expect to be reproved for; there is an excellency in the name of God, which is fearful and dreadful, and in the nature and perfections of God, his power, justice, and holiness, in which he is glorious and tremendous, and should deter men from sinning against him; and there is an excellency in his works of nature and providence, which are wondrous, and show him to be near at hand, and can at once, if he pleases, take vengeance for sin: or "shall not his height" (b), &c. his sublimity, his superiority to all beings; he is the most high God, higher than the highest among men, he is above all gods, all that are so called; and therefore all the inhabitants of the earth should stand in awe of him, and not sin: or "shall not his lifting up" (c)? &c. on a throne of judgment, as the Targum adds; he is the Judge of the whole earth, and will judge his people, and right their wrongs; he sits on a throne high, and lifted up, judging righteously; and will maintain the cause of the innocent, and avenge himself on those that injure them, and therefore it must be a fearful thing to fall into his hands: some render it, "shall not his burning" (d); or flaming fire, &c. as Jarchi observes, and apply it to hell fire, and the everlasting burnings of the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; and which are very terrible, and may well frighten men from sinning against God; but the first sense seems to be best:

and his dread fall upon you? the dread of men, of powerful and victorious enemies, is very terrible, as was the dread of the Israelites which fell upon the inhabitants of Canaan, Jos 2:9; but how awful must be the terror of the great and dreadful God, when that falls upon men, or his terrible wrath and vengeance are revealed from heaven, and threaten every moment to fall upon the transgressors of his law, upon those that mock him and injure his people.

(b) "celsitudo ejus", Montanus, Vatablus, Bolducius; "sublimitas ejus", Beza, Mercerus. (c) "Elevatio, erectio", Drusius. (d) So some in Jarchi & Bar Tzemach.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Shall not his excellency - His exaltation שׂאת śe'êth from נשׂא nâśâ' to exalt, to lift up), or his majesty, Gen 49:3.

Make you afraid - Fill you with awe and reverence. Shall it not restrain you from fallacy, from sophisms, and from all presumptuous and unfounded reasoning? The sense here is, that a sense of the greatness and majesty of God should fill the mind with solemnity and reverence, and make us serious and sincere; should repress all declamation and mere assertion, and should lead us to adduce only those considerations which will bear the test of the final trial. The general proposition, however, is not less clear, that a sense of the majesty and glory of God should at all times fill the mind with solemn awe, and produce the deepest veneration. See Jer 5:22; Jer 10:7-10; Gen 28:17.

And his dread - The fear of him. You should so stand in awe of him as not to advance any sentiments which he will not approve, or which will not bear the test of examination. Rosenmuller, however, and after him Noyes, supposes that this is not so much a declaration of what ought to be, implying that the fear of God ought to produce veneration, as a declaration of what actually occurred - implying that they were actually influenced by this slavish fear in what they said. According to this it means that they were actuated only by a dread of what God would do to them that led them to condemn. Job without proof, and not by a regard to truth. But the common interpretation seems to me most in accordance with the meaning of the passage.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

His excellency; his infinite wisdom, which sees your secret falsehoods; and his justice and power, which can and will punish you for it.

Make you afraid of speaking rashly or falsely of his ways and counsels.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. His dread fall upon you — Pineda gives, in this place, a Spanish proverb, The hill and the stones are God’s: that is, the vantage ground is his.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall not his excellency make you afraid! and his dread fall upon you? Will not the very excellency and perfection of God cause you all the more to fear, since they will be arrayed against you? God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, who is no respecter of persons, and hates those who are respecters of persons, will by his very purity and truth be offended at your conduct, and induced to punish it,

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Job continues to speak to his friends.

Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?

Job uses these questions to rebuke his friends. Possible meanings are 1) Job is saying that they should fear God. AT: "His majesty should make you afraid, and his dread should fall on you." or 2) Job is saying that they will fear God. AT: "His majesty will make you afraid, and his dread will fall on you!" (See: Rhetorical Question)

and the dread of him fall upon you

Dread falling on people represents them becoming terribly afraid. AT: "and you not be terribly afraid" or "and you not be terrified" (See: Metaphor)

Your memorable sayings are proverbs made of ashes

Ashes represent things that are worthless and do not last. AT: "Your memorable sayings are worthless like ashes" or "Your memorable sayings will be forgotten like ashes that are blown away" (See: Metaphor)

your defenses are defenses made of clay

Job speaks of what they say as if it were a wall made of clay around a city; it cannot defend the people because clay breaks easily. AT: "What you say in defense is as useless as a wall of clay" (See: Metaphor)

your defenses

Possible meanings are that this refers to 1) what they say to defend themselves or 2) what they say to defend God.

translationWords

majesty

fear

proverb

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Will not His majesty Heb. שאתו. [Will not] His exaltation and His awesomeness terrify you? Others define שְׂאֵתוֹ as “His burning fire.” like (II Sam. 5:21), “and David and his men burned them (וישאם),” and like (Jud. 20:38), “a great pillar of (משאת) smoke.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.