Job 13:15 - Exposition

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him ; rather, yet will I wait for him. The passage is one of the few in this book where there are two readings— לוֹ איחל and לאֹ איחל . Those who prefer the latter commonly render it, "I have no hope;" but it is pointed out by Canon Cook that there are reasons for regarding לֹא as an archaic form for לוֹ , which sometimes takes its place. If this be not allowed the reading לוֹ will have to be preferred, on the double authority of the versions and of the context. Job cannot possibly have said, in one verse, "I have no hope," and in the next, "He (God) shall be my Salvation." But I will maintain mine own ways before him ; i.e. "I will maintain that they are right and good ways, not open to the imputations that my 'friends' have cast upon them" ( Job 4:7 , Job 4:8 ; Job 8:6 , Job 8:20 ; Job 11:11 , Job 11:14 , Job 11:20 ).