For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
Job 13 belongs to Job's reply to the constant accusations, open and implied, brought against him by his friends, a connection made clear by reading those accusations and his responses together. It stands in the middle of his last reply, before his friends cease troubling him. Within that reply, the verse falls within his answer to Zophar's call for repentance, in which he answers the argument and appeals to God.
It is part of Job's account of his suffering under his friends' accusations, complaining of bitter charges written against him and of being made to bear the guilt of the sins of his youth. He speaks there as though God were treating him as guilty, as one bearing the guilt of sins from his youth. In the book's debate about suffering, his friends generally spoke truths but wrongly applied them to him, showing that affliction does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure.
The writing of bitter things also shows God's writing of bitter judgments against the apostate Jewish church, which the destruction of Jerusalem proved. The severity of that suffering was measured by the divine light and favor the people had abused or neglected. The fallen Christian church, having greater light and privileges, faces still more fearful punishment if it proves unfaithful.
The language pictures a person recording bitter charges against himself, including the sins of his youth, and illustrates the habit of continual self-accusation. Such self-scrutiny is not a child of God's proper daily occupation, because the heart is not the final judge and its accusations must be brought before God. To write bitter things against oneself in this way is to lay unjust burdens on the soul by taking up the wrong cross instead of one's own. The true cross is the duty fitted to one's condition, for one with wealth to give and give till the shoulders ache, and for one who is poor to offer painful public testimony that crucifies pride. To mistake a self-chosen sacrifice for God's requirement only fosters pride.
Job 13 belongs to Job's reply to the constant accusations, open and implied, brought against him by his friends, a connection made clear by reading those accusations and his responses together. It stands in the middle of his last reply, before his friends cease troubling him. Within that reply, the verse falls within his answer to Zophar's call for repentance, in which he answers the argument and appeals to God.
It is part of Job's account of his suffering under his friends' accusations, complaining of bitter charges written against him and of being made to bear the guilt of the sins of his youth. He speaks there as though God were treating him as guilty, as one bearing the guilt of sins from his youth. In the book's debate about suffering, his friends generally spoke truths but wrongly applied them to him, showing that affliction does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure.
The writing of bitter things also shows God's writing of bitter judgments against the apostate Jewish church, which the destruction of Jerusalem proved. The severity of that suffering was measured by the divine light and favor the people had abused or neglected. The fallen Christian church, having greater light and privileges, faces still more fearful punishment if it proves unfaithful.
The language pictures a person recording bitter charges against himself, including the sins of his youth, and illustrates the habit of continual self-accusation. Such self-scrutiny is not a child of God's proper daily occupation, because the heart is not the final judge and its accusations must be brought before God. To write bitter things against oneself in this way is to lay unjust burdens on the soul by taking up the wrong cross instead of one's own. The true cross is the duty fitted to one's condition, for one with wealth to give and give till the shoulders ache, and for one who is poor to offer painful public testimony that crucifies pride. To mistake a self-chosen sacrifice for God's requirement only fosters pride.