“Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may.
Job has just called his friends worthless physicians and told them their wise sayings are ashes. Now he asks for one thing only — silence, so he can take his case to God and bear whatever follows.
Silence as their wisdom
Job asks for quiet. He has just charged his friends with speaking for God while not knowing what they were saying.
Leslie M. GrantThey were "worthless physicians," he said. He was seeking to reason and to plead with them, but they were not listening. Instead they were speaking evil on God's behalf, using deceit in claiming to speak for God.
Keeping quiet would have been more than good manners.
William Kelly"Oh, that you would all keep silent! It would be your wisdom." And it often is a man's wisdom when he sits quiet and holds his tongue. But the moment he begins to speak about what he does not understand — well, what then? That is exactly where they were.
The turn from friends to God
Here Job turns from his three friends to God. The change of listener brings him no relief.
Samuel RidoutThe fulness of Job's response to Zophar is striking. In it he practically turns from his friends to God; but sadly, he finds no answer to his awful terror of doubt and darkness. The discourse may be divided into three main parts. (1) He answers his friends (Job 12:1 — 13:13). (2) He challenges God (Job 13:14-28). (3) A hope of immortality amid despair (Job 14).
Job's problem was not willingness but access.
William KellyHe wanted to speak to the Almighty and to reason with God. That is just what he was doing. But how? He did not know. There was not yet One to stand between God and man, as Christ does. So he did not know how to get to Him. If he could only find Him! If he could only stand before Him! He knew very well what he would find there — a faithful God.
Ready for whatever comes
"Let come on me what may" is not recklessness. Job counts the cost before he says a word of his case.
William Kelly"Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may." Now here I am, ready to bear whatever God sends. I feel the awfulness of it, and the terrors of God are on my soul; but here I am; let Him do as seems good in His sight.
What he could and could not answer
Job never claims to have solved his own riddle. He asks for the floor because he can at least dismantle what his friends have built.
Leslie M. GrantHaving exposed his friends' ignorance, Job asks them to keep quiet and listen to him. He could not give them the answer to the many questions that troubled him. But he could show them that their answers were empty and wrong. At least he wants time to speak, and then "let come on me what may."
Job had another reason for speaking, and it was an honest one.
William KellySpeaking out was a relief to him in the agony he was going through. All he wanted was to be put right if he was wrong.
The danger, and the missing mediator
Job's demand to be heard also exposes him. His defence of himself slides into charges against God, and he still holds on to his own imagined righteousness.
Samuel RidoutAnd yet at once he renews his charges against God. He is not yet ready to be stripped of all his fancied righteousness. God holds him as an enemy. God drives him like a withered leaf before the wind. God accuses him of those almost forgotten sins of youth — ah, Job, it seems that even you must admit there have been sins.
What Job asked for — a hearing before God without the dread that crushed him — is open to us now.
Samuel RidoutBut how dare he speak before that One from whose presence he would instinctively flee? Let Him at least remove the awful dread that chills Job's heart. Let Him relieve him of his pain, and Job will answer or speak to Him. How these words, beautiful in their very anguish, cry aloud for the blessed Daysman, the Mediator! Blessed be God, we can "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Job could only grope in darkness.
Summary
- Silence — Job's friends spoke for God without understanding Him. Keeping quiet would have been their wisdom.
- Turn — this verse ends Job's reply to men and begins his challenge to God. He speaks upward now, but he does not know how to reach Him.
- Cost — "let come on me what may" means he is ready to bear whatever God sends, terrors and all, and let God do as seems good to Him.
- Limit — Job could expose his friends' empty answers, but he had no answer of his own to the questions tormenting him.
- Mediator — his cry to be heard without dread calls out for the Mediator. Job groped in darkness; we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, for mercy and help in time of need.