Job 13:4

4. but ye are forgers of lies] The but in Job_13:3 had for its background the knowledge of the Divine wisdom (Job_13:1-2); Job knows this well, but for all his knowledge of it he desires to plead his cause before God, he will speak unto the Almighty. This desire and purpose, however, are crossed by the thought of the use which his friends make of the Divine wisdom against him, and he is diverted from his great object to administer a rebuke to them—but ye are forgers of lies. Job_13:4-12 are therefore a digression, the main object being resumed in Job_13:13; the digression, however, is profoundly interesting. In clause one Job tells his friends that their assumptions of his guilt and the application which they made to his case of the Divine omniscience are false; in the second he compares them to ignorant physicians, who take in hand a disease which they are incompetent to treat.

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.

Job 13:4 But ye [are] forgers of lies, ye [are] all physicians of no value.

Ver. 4. But ye are forgers of lies] i.e. Ye create false maxims to judge me by; ye gather up without any order, and to no purpose, whatsoever cometh in your way to strengthen and maintain your false accusation against me. You are not only cencinnatores, forgers, but compactors, botchers, such as, by sewing one lie to another, do patch up a false and frivolous discourse, Mendacia mendaciis assuitis. So David, Psa 119:69, The proud have forged (or pieced together, made it up as of many shreds) a lie against me. David saith of hypocrites, that their tongue frameth deceit, Psa 50:19; and of Doeg, that his tongue devised mischief, like a sharp razor, doing deceit, Psa 52:2. Jeremiah saith of his countrymen, that they had taught their tongues to speak lies, and were grown artists at it, Jer 9:5; yea, that they had taken fast hold of deceit, and could not be got off without striving, Jer 8:5. But these countrymen of Job were none such, for God said, "Surely they are my people, children that will not lie," Isa 63:8. And although every man be a liar, either by imposture or by impotence; yet it must be understood that these good men aimed at truth, and intended not to deceive Job, but to undeceive him rather. They maintained errors, but unwittingly; they charged him also (but unjustly) with hypocrisy. Hence this so severe a high charge, Ye are forgers of lies, such as our ruffians would revenge with a stab. But we must know, saith Merlin, that in those better times it was not so harsh a business in a serious disputation to call that a lie which was safely alleged by an adversary as today it is in this corrupt age of ours, wherein the greatest liars, though taken in the manner, yet take it extremely ill to be told of their fault. Besides, in the defence of God’s cause, and the labouring truth, plain-dealing, even with our best friends, is best; so that the apostle’s rule, Eph 4:31, be observed, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice."

Ye are all physicians of no value] Because you go to work upon wrong principles, and mistakenly ministered. Physicians he acknowledgeth them, and that they came with a good intent to comfort him; but, for lack of skill, instead of curing, they had well nigh killed him, because they judged amiss of his disease, and used corrosives instead of cordials. By the way, observe that God’s word is not only the food, but the medicine of the soul, and may far more fitly be so called than the library of Alexandria was of old: for as the diseases of the body are healed by medicine seasonably and rightly used, so are the distempers of the soul by Scriptural consolations; neither shall we ever have cause to complain of them, as Cicero did of philosophical comforts, Nescio quomodo, &c., I know not how it cometh to pass, but this I find, that the disease is too hard for the medicine; or as the Romans did of Sulla’s bloody government, that the remedy was worse than the malady. "How forcible are right words!" said Job, Job 6:25. And fair words, as physicians, cure the mind distempered with passion, saith the poet, Oργης νοσουσης εισιν ιατροι λογοι (Aeschyl.). Once, when Luther was in a great heat about something that had crossed him, Melancthon pacified him by repeating this verse,

Vince animos, iramque tuam, qui caetera vincis.

But Job’s friends, as they were botchers of lies, so they were bunglers at healing him; they did, saith Lavater, as a surgeon who applieth a plaister to the hand of him whose grief is in his foot; or as that country mountebank in France, who was wont to give in writing to his patients for curing all diseases (Becan. sum. Theol., part 1, cap. 16),

Si vis curari de morbo nescio quali,

Accipias herbam, sed qualem nescio, nec quam:

Ponas neseio quo, curabere nescio quando.

These verses are rendered in English by one in the following way:

Your sore I know not what, do not foreslow

To cure with herbs, which whence I do not know:

Place them (well pounced) I know not where, and then

You shall be perfect whole, I know not when.

Such ουτιδανοι, nullities in the world, such no physicians, such idols, such extreme nothingnesses, good for nothing (as that rotten girdle in Jeremiah, Jer 13:7, those vine branches in Eze 15:6-7, that idol in St Paul, 1Co 8:4), were Job’s friends to him, miserable comforters, Job 16:2, adding to his affliction instead of easing it, and pushing at him as the whole herd of deer doth at that one that is wounded.

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 13:4-5. Ye are forgers of lies — That is, authors of false doctrine, namely, that great afflictions are peculiar to hypocrites and wicked men. All physicians of no value — Unfaithful and unskilful; prescribing bad remedies: and misapplying good ones. O that ye would altogether hold your peace — The best proof of your wisdom would be never to say a word more of these matters; for then your ignorance and folly would be concealed, which are now made manifest by your speaking concerning what you do not understand. Thus Solomon, Pro 17:28, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”

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

You do not well apply your medicine to the disease.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

forgers of lies--literally, "artful twisters of vain speeches" [UMBREIT].

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 4. Ye are forgers of lies] Ye frame deceitful arguments: ye reason sophistically, and pervert truth and justice, in order to support your cause.

Physicians of no value.] Ye are as feeble in your reasonings as ye are inefficient in your skill. Ye can neither heal the wound of my mind, nor the disease of my body. In ancient times every wise man professed skill in the healing art, and probably Job's friends had tried their skill on his body as well as on his mind. He therefore had, in his argument against their teaching, a double advantage: Your skill in divinity and physic is equal: in the former ye are forgers of lies; in the latter, ye are good-for-nothing physicians. I can see no reason to depart from the general meaning of the original to which the ancient versions adhere. The Chaldee says: "Ye are idle physicians; and, like the mortified flesh which is cut off with the knife, so are the whole of you." The imagery in the former clause is chirurpical, and refers to the sewing together, or connecting the divided sides of wounds; for טפלי topheley, which we translate forgers, comes from טפל taphal, to fasten, tie, connect, sew together. And I question whether טפלי topheley here may not as well express SURGEONS, as רפאי ropheey, in the latter clause, PHYSICIANS. Ye are CHIRURGEONS of falsity, and worthless PHYSICIANS.

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

(4) Ye are forgers of lies.—He now retorts upon his friends in terms not more deferential than their own, and calls them scrapers together, or patchers up, of falsehood, and physicians who are powerless to heal, or even to understand the case. He feels that they have failed miserably and utterly to understand him.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But ye are forgers of lies,.... This is a hard and very harsh saying; Job was now in a passion, provoked by his friends, and retorts upon them what they had charged him with, Job 11:3; so often in controversies and disputes between good men undue heats arise, and unbecoming words drop from their lips and pens; to tell lies is a bad thing, but to forge them, to tell a studied premeditated lie, is dreadfully shocking, contrary to the grace of God, and which good men cannot allow themselves in, it is the character of bad men, see Isa 63:8; but it may be Job may not design lies in a strict and proper sense, but falsehoods and untruths; for though no lie is of the truth, yet every untruth is not a lie; because a man may deliver an untruth, not knowing it to be so, but taking it for a truth, speaks it, without any design to impose upon and deceive others. Doctrinal lies may be intended, such as the false prophets told, whereby they made the hearts of the righteous sad, and were the untempered mortar they daubed with, Eze 13:10; and the word here used has the same signification, and may be rendered, "daubers of lies" (o); that colour over things, and make falsehoods look like truths, and deliver them for such, and like others speak lies in hypocrisy: now those here referred to were these, that God did not afflict good men, at least in any very severe manner, and that Job, being thus afflicted, was a bad man, and an hypocrite; both these Job charges as lies:

ye are all physicians of no value; or "idol physicians" (p); not that pretended to the cure of idols, but were no better than idols themselves, and understood no more how to cure than they, than an Heathen deity, the god of physic Aesculapius, or anyone that might be reckoned such; but was no other than an image of wood or stone, and so could not be possessed of the faculty of healing, and such were Job's friends; an idol is nothing, and is good for nothing, and such were they as physicians, they were idol physicians, like the "idol shepherd", Zac 11:17; of no value at all: the Rabbins (q) say, the word used signifies a nerve or sinew of the neck, which when broken is incurable; and such physicians were they, that could do him no service, no more than cure a broken neck; this is to be understood of them, not as physicians of his body, that they pretended not to be; he was greatly diseased from head to foot, and had no hope of a recovery of his health, nor did they pretend to prescribe for him, nor does he reproach them on that account; but as physicians of his soul, afflicted and distressed, they came to administer comfort to him under his afflictions, but they were miserable comforters, as he elsewhere calls them, Job 16:2; instead of acting the part of the good Samaritan, and pouring in oil and wine into his wounds, Luk 10:34, they poured in vinegar, and made them bleed and smart the more, and added affliction to his affliction; instead of healing, they wounded him yet more and more; and, instead of binding up his wounds, opened them wider, and gave him sensible pain; instead of giving him the cordials of the Gospel, they gave him the corrosives the law; and instead of pointing out unto him the gracious promises of God, for the support of his afflicted soul, they loaded him with charges of sin, and set him to work by repentance and reformation to obtain the forgiveness of them: they said many good things, but misapplied them, being ignorant of the case, and so were physicians of no value; as such are who are ignorant of the nature and causes of a disease, and therefore make wrong prescriptions, though the medicines they prescribe may in themselves be good: indeed, in the cases of souls, or for the healing of the diseases of the soul, which are natural and hereditary, epidemical and universal, nauseous and loathsome, and of themselves mortal, all physicians are of no value; but Jesus Christ, who is the only physician of souls, the able, skilful, and infallible one, that cures all fully freely that apply unto him; bodily physicians are no use in such cases, nor merry companions, nor legal preachers, who direct to supple the wounds with tears of repentance, and bind them up with rags of a man's own righteousness; Christ is the only Saviour, his blood the balsam that heals every wound, and his righteousness that affords peace, joy, and comfort to afflicted minds, and delivers from those weights and pressures of mind with which they are bowed down.

(o) "incrustatores fuci", Schultens. (p) "curatores idoli", Bolducius; so Ramban; "medici idoli", Pineda; so some in Drusius. (q) 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.

But ye are forgers of lies - The word lies here seems to be used in a large sense, to denote sophisms, false accusations, errors. They maintained false positions; they did not see the exact truth in respect to the divine dealings, and to the character of Job. They maintained strenuously that Job was a hypocrite, and that God was punishing him for his sins. They maintained that God deals with people in exact accordance with their charactor in this world, all of which Job regarded as false doctrine, and asserted that they defended it with sophistical arguments invented for the purpose, and thus they could be spoken of as “forgers of lies.”

Physicians of no value - The meaning is, that they had come to give him consolation, but nothing that they had said had imparted comfort. They were like physicians sent for to visit the sick, who could do nothing when they came; compare Job 16:2.

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

Having. Hebrew, "But ye are sewers of lies." (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "unskilful surgeons, (who, instead of sewing up a wound, increase it) and all of you doctors of evil;" vain empirics. --- Maintainers. Protestants, "ye are all physicians of no value." (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Forgers of lies, i.e. authors of false doctrine, to wit, that great afflictions are peculiar to hypocrites and wicked men.

Physicians of no value; unfaithful and unskilful; prescribing bad remedies, and misapplying good ones.

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

4. Forgers of lies — Taphal, “to forge,” “to stitch upon or together,” primarily means to “glue together,” (Gesenius,) or “smear over.” The lie needs no “glueing” to bind it fast to its victim. To save the good name of God they fasten upon Job the imputation of guilt.

Physicians of no value — The Talmud strangely calls them healers of the jugular artery, the cutting of which produces death, hence the healers of the incurable. (Delitzsch.) A friend has been called the physician of the soul; in some such sense the word is used here. They failed in all the offices of friendship, and hence were worthless.

Of no value — The word in the original thus rendered, signifies also idols, thus indicating their nothingness — worthlessness. Hence the apostle says, We know that an idol is nothing. 1Co_8:4.

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

But ye are forgers of lies. A harsh expression, indicating that Job was thoroughly exasperated. The lies which his friends had forged were, partly, misrepresentations of what he had said, as for example Job_11:4, but mainly statements, more or less covert, which implied that he had brought all his calamities on himself by a course of evil-doing. (Job_4:7, 8 8:13, 14 11:11, 14, 20) Ye are all physicians of no value. Job"s friends had come to him to "comfort" him, (Job_2:11) and act as physicians of his soul. But they had entirely failed to be of the least service. They had not even understood his case.

"Physicians of no value.

Job"s friends were physicians of no value. They came to heal, but they only aggravated his complaint.

I CONSIDER WHERE WE MEET WITH PHYSICIANS OF No VALUE.

1. In dealing with sorrow. How rare is a truly helpful friend in a time of great sorrow! Many well-wishers try their hand at consolation, but most of them bungle painfully. We endure their visits of condolence because we do not wish to be ungrateful and disagreeable, but we are relieved when they have left us alone with our grief.

2. In treating sin. No human being can cure sin. Men may blame sin, but they cannot cast it out. Here is a disease that no medicine of man"s can touch. But there is room for some action of ours. We ought to be able to bring the Divine remedy. Yet how often we fail to do so! How conscious we must be that our efforts are not reaching the sinner and really helping him!

3. In meeting social trouble. There are plenty of wild theorists, but none of them have been able to set right the disorganized state of society. Philanthropists too often show more zeal than judgment.

II INQUIRE WHY THE PHYSICIANS ARK OF NO VALUE.

1. I gnorance of the state of the patient. If the doctor has not rightly diagnosed his case he is not likely to be successful in his treatment of it. We must understand those whom we would benefit.

2. Lack of skill in the use of remedies. The doctor must understand his drugs, or he will poison his patients. If we would benefit men we must first know them; then we must know the Divine medicine. They who do not apprehend the gospel of Christ themselves cannot be physicians of value to others. We must study truth as well as men; and we must go further, and be familiar ourselves with those great saving ideas which we would apply to others.

3. Absence of sympathy. Here was the secret of Job"s friends" failure, although at first they seemed to have evinced the deepest sympathy. We can never help the miserable till we sympathize with them. The first essential to success in a mission among the poor is brotherliness. If this is wanting, the mission must fail though any amount of energy and money may be expended on it.

III REMEMBER THAT THERE IS ONE PHYSICIAN OF INESTIMABLE VALUE. Christ fulfils all the requisite conditions. He knows us, for he is one of ourselves tempted in all respects as we are, though without sin. He is familiar with the needed remedy, for he is one with God, and is perfectly at home among those great spiritual facts from which the cure of the world"s evil must come. He, too, is full of sympathy. Of old he cured the sick because he was "moved with compassion." The great, tender heart of Christ beats in warm sympathy for all his brother-men. Now we have to see in experience that our good Physician is able to do what the physicians of no value have failed to accomplish. Christ is the Friend to help in sorrow; he alone can cure sin. Christ in the world brings the kingdom of heaven, and so corrects the social troubles. Christ as a living Saviour, as an active Physician now in our midst, can heal, and we know this because we see he does heal wherever he is trusted to do so. W.F.A.

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

combine lies Heb. טפלי שקר,combine false words of falsehood.

all of you are quacks Heb. רפאי אלל. Every אֱלִיל in Scripture is an expression of אַל, nought. Our Sages, however, explained that this is the cervical ligament, which [if damaged] has no cure, and it is called אֱלָל.

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.