Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
The verse stands within the extended debate over his afflictions between Job and his three friends, a debate that runs from chapters 4 to 31 in three rounds of speeches. More narrowly it belongs to Job's reply to Zophar as he appeals to God. There Job challenges anyone to bring a legal case and plead against him, demanding that someone answer and plead against him. He presses this with urgency that he must speak, for if he holds his tongue and remains silent and stays silent he will die and give up the ghost.
Spoken by Job amid affliction, the verse raises the great problems that have perplexed humanity through all ages concerning overruling providence and sin and suffering. Its setting is that God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction, while his three friends charge him with sin and declare that his sufferings are because of sin. It therefore warns against the continuing human tendency and proneness to misjudge fellow sufferers in the same way the friends misjudged Job.
The verse stands within the extended debate over his afflictions between Job and his three friends, a debate that runs from chapters 4 to 31 in three rounds of speeches. More narrowly it belongs to Job's reply to Zophar as he appeals to God. There Job challenges anyone to bring a legal case and plead against him, demanding that someone answer and plead against him. He presses this with urgency that he must speak, for if he holds his tongue and remains silent and stays silent he will die and give up the ghost.
Spoken by Job amid affliction, the verse raises the great problems that have perplexed humanity through all ages concerning overruling providence and sin and suffering. Its setting is that God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction, while his three friends charge him with sin and declare that his sufferings are because of sin. It therefore warns against the continuing human tendency and proneness to misjudge fellow sufferers in the same way the friends misjudged Job.