What Does Job 31:13 Mean?
If I have spurned the case of my servant, or of my maidservant, in their contention with me;
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
If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;THE KEY
A servant’s challenge is still a case with standing before the person who holds power over them.
THE MEANING
The verse places your treatment of a less powerful person’s complaint inside your own moral accounting. Their claim does not become beneath judgment because they depend on you; the decisive question is whether you dismiss it when they challenge you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A person under my authority has no right to challenge how I treat them.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, govern, or render a decision.
“case” in this verse is mishpat. The word translated “cause” is mishpat: a matter for judgment, a right, or a claim that can be heard. Job frames the servant’s challenge as something with standing before him; to despise it is to treat that claim as beneath judgment.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or govern.
שָׁפַט
The verb shows that mishpat belongs to the act of judging; the servant’s claim calls for a real hearing.
shofet: A judge or ruler.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch brings the person exercising authority into view: the one with power is also responsible for how a claim is judged.
בְּרִיבָם
bərīvām
GROWS FROM
ריב
To contend, dispute, or plead a case.
“contention” in this verse is bərīvām. The Hebrew describes the servants as bringing a dispute against him, not merely making noise. Together, rib and mishpat make this a hearing scene: the powerful person can recognize the claim’s standing or dismiss it.
ALSO GROWS
riv: A dispute or legal case.
רִיב
The noun makes clear that the servants’ contention is a matter that can be brought forward and heard.
merivah: Strife or dispute.
מְרִיבָה
This related form shows the wider branch of conflict carried by rib, while Job’s wording gives that conflict the shape of a claim before someone with authority.
THE PATTERN
A claim does not lose its standing because the person bringing it has less power.
You do not bend the judgment of the sojourner, or of the fatherless; nor do you bind a widow's garment as a pledge.Open your mouth, judge in alignment, and plead the cause of the bowed and the craving.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
You do not bend the judgment of the sojourner, or of the fatherless; nor do you bind a widow's garment as a pledge.Deuteronomy uses the same word, mishpat, translated “judgment” here and “cause” in Job. Both verses place the claim of someone with less power before the person who could disregard it.
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