Job 13:4 Commentary and Bible Study

Job now expresses his feelings about his friends, as Barnes says, without much reserve; nevertheless his evaluation of them is essentially correct. He is angry with the three because he feels they have done him a great injury, just when their friendship should have made them stand by him. He finds them guilty of forging lies. The Hebrew is ‘smearers or plasterers of lies’. The idea is that lies are smeared over the top in order to cover over what is underneath – the unpleasant reality that they do not want to see. This is strong language. How had they invented and spoken lies? They had knowingly ignored what is real and fabricated an account of God’s government which suited their simplistic philosophy, but did not correspond to the facts of life. They all taught – and they had now all spoken – that in this life, God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, therefore anyone who suffers hardship has come under the judgment of God and is clearly wicked.In behaving saying this, they had presented themselves as physicians, healers of his condition, whereas they were in fact worthless, better not to be in practice. They did more harm than good and it would have better if they had never come to him. Job does not want their attention, but they insist on remaining with him, because it has become a matter of theological contest. How much harm an ill-trained or fake physician can do! They wrongly diagnose conditions and they administer inappropriate medicines. A bad doctor is placed in a position of considerable trust, and yet he can kill his patient.