What Does Job 13:3 Mean?
Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue with God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.THE KEY
Here, “reason” means bringing a case for examination, so Job’s argument becomes a form of direct nearness to God.
THE MEANING
Your desire to speak plainly to God can include a case you want examined. The verse holds reverence and argument together: God is addressed as Almighty, yet Job still wants to reason with him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that honoring God means suppressing the case you want to bring before God.
THE ROOT
וְהוֹכֵחַ
wəhôkēaḥ
GROWS FROM
יכח
y-k-ḥ
To prove, decide, argue a case, or reprove.
“argue with” in this verse is wəhôkēaḥ. English “reason” can sound like calm explanation, but יכח carries the force of a case being argued, tested, or brought to judgment. Job wants what troubles him examined in direct encounter with God.
ALSO GROWS
tôkēḥāh: Reproof, correction, or argument.
תּוֹכֵחָה
This branch shows that the root can name a matter being challenged and examined, not merely explained.
môkîaḥ: One who argues, proves, or reproves.
מוֹכִיחַ
The root can describe the one bringing a case forward, matching Job’s active posture before God.
אֲדַבֵּר
ʾădabbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; its noun branch can mean a word, matter, or affair.
“speak” in this verse is ʾădabbēr. The verse begins with speech, then turns to argument: Job gives voice to the matter he wants examined. Hebrew דבר connects speaking with the matter spoken, so his words carry the issue itself into God’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: A word, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
This branch links speech with the matter Job wants to bring before God.
dibbēr: Spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This verb branch keeps the focus on giving the matter voice rather than leaving it unspoken.
THE PATTERN
Direct speech with God can carry an openly stated case or question.
I would lay out my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.Come now, and let us lay it out together, says the LORD. Though your falling short be as scarlet, it shall be whitened as snow. Though it be red like crimson, it shall be as wool.Around the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you left me behind?THE THREAD
Come now, and let us lay it out together, says the LORD. Though your falling short be as scarlet, it shall be whitened as snow. Though it be red like crimson, it shall be as wool.Job’s “reason” and Isaiah’s “reason together” use forms of יכח (y-k-ḥ), the root of arguing, proving, or bringing a case for examination. Isaiah shows that this direct exchange can open into the removal of a stain, with what is scarlet becoming white.
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