Job 13:25
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Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Job here comes to make application of what he had said in the foregoing chapter; and now we have him not in so good a temper as he was in then: for, I. He is very bold with his friends, comparing himself with them, notwithstanding the mortifications he was under (Job 13:1, Job 13:2). Condemning them for their falsehood, their forwardness to judge, their partiality and deceitfulness under colour of pleading God's cause (Job 13:4-8), and threatening them with the judgments of God for their so doing (Job 13:9-12), desiring them to be silent (Job 13:5, Job 13:13, Job 13:17), and turning from them to God (Job 13:3). II. He is very bold with his God. 1. In some expressions his faith is very bold, yet that is not more bold than welcome (Job 13:15, Job 13:16, Job 13:18) But, 2. In other expressions his passion is rather too bold in expostulations with God concerning the deplorable condition he was in (Job 13:14, Job 13:19, etc.), complaining of the confusion he was in (Job 13:20-22), and the loss he was at to find out the sin that provoked God thus to afflict him, and in short of the rigour of God's proceedings against him (Job 13:23-28).
Open source ↗13:25 In the Old Testament, dry straw is a common image for what can be blown away (“chaff,” Ps 83:13; Isa 40:24; Jer 13:24) or burned (Exod 15:7; Isa 47:14; Mal 4:1; see also “dry grass,” Isa 5:24; 33:11), or for what is weak (Job 41:20-21) and trifling (Isa 41:2).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.
Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?
The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.