Job 13:2

What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

XIII.

(2) I am not inferior unto you.—I fall not short of you. But it is this very sense of the inscrutableness of God’s dealings that makes him long to come face to face with God, and to reason with Him on the first principles of His action. As it is manifestly the traditionally orthodox position that his friends assume, it is refreshing to find that there may be some truth spoken for God by what is not so reckoned, and that more ultimate truth may exist in honest doubt than is sometimes found in the profession of a loosely-held creed. So the Laureate:

“There lives more truth in honest doubt,

Believe me, than in half the creeds.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-12 With self-preference, Job declared that he needed not to be taught by them. Those who dispute are tempted to magnify themselves, and lower their brethren, more than is fit. When dismayed or distressed with the fear of wrath, the force of temptation, or the weight of affliction, we should apply to the Physician of our souls, who never rejects any, never prescribes amiss, and never leaves any case uncured. To Him we may speak at all times. To broken hearts and wounded consciences, all creatures, without Christ, are physicians of no value. Job evidently speaks with a very angry spirit against his friends. They had advanced some truths which nearly concerned Job, but the heart unhumbled before God, never meekly receives the reproofs of men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

What ye know ... - See the note at Job 12:3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 13

Job 13:1-28. Job's Reply to Zophar Continued.

1. all this—as to the dealings of Providence (Job 12:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

What ye know, the same do I know also,.... Concerning God and his perfections, his sovereignty, holiness, justice, wisdom, power, goodness, &c. and concerning his providences, and his dealings with men in an ordinary or in an extraordinary way:

I am not inferior unto you; as might be deduced from the preceding discourse; See Gill on Job 12:3.

Geneva Study Bible

What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - What ye know, the same do I know also. Job's friends have claimed to instruct him and set him right, on the ground of their age and experience (Job 4:8; Job 5:27; Job 8:8-10), He protests that, in the matters on which they have lectured him, they have no advantage over himself - he knows all that they know - in truth, the knowledge is open to all (see Job 12:3). I am not inferior unto you. An exact repetition of the second clause of Job 12:3. Job 13:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all,

Mine ear hath heard and marked it.

2 What ye know do I know also,

I do not stand back behind you.

Job has brought forward proof of what he has stated at the commencement of this speech (Job 12:3), that he is not inferior to them in the knowledge of God and divine things, and therefore he can now repeat as proved what he maintains. The plain כּל, which in other passages, with the force of הכּל, signifies omnes (Genesis 16:12; Isaiah 30:5; Jeremiah 44:12) and omnia (Job 42:2; Psalm 8:7; Isaiah 44:24), has the definite sense of haec omnia here. לה (v. 1b) is not after the Aramaic manner dat. pro acc. objecti: my ear has heard and comprehended it (id); but dat. commodi, or perhaps only dat. ethicus: and has made it intelligible to itself (sibi); בּין of the apprehension accompanying perception. He has a knowledge of the exalted and glorious majesty of God, acquired partly from his own observation and partly from the teachings of others. He also knows equal to (instar) their knowledge, i.e., he has a knowledge (ידע as the idea implied in it, e.g., like Psalm 82:5) which will bear comparison with theirs. But he will no longer contend with them.