Job 13:15f
‘Surely, I would speak to the Almighty!…. I desire to reason with God…. Let come on me what will!… Why…do I put my life into my hand? Though He slays me — yet will I trust in Him!… He shall also be my salvation!’ Job13:3-16.
Calvin remarks in his Institutes II:10:19 & III:2:21: “To those who think only of the present life, death is the extremity of despair. But it could not destroy the hope of Job! ‘Though He slay me,’ said he, ‘yet will I trust in Him!’ (Job 13:15)…. Job thus declares the strength of his confidence: ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!’ (Job 13:15).”
And Calvin further adds in his Tracts and Treatises III:461: “If all things are kept uncertain in regard to the future — shall the believer, to whom all things work together for good, regard affliction as an evidence of divine hatred? By no means!… Supported by this consideration, they not only endure whatever befalls them with unshaken magnanimity, but even glory in tribulation! Acknowledging with blessed Job (13:15) — ‘Though He slay us, we will hope in Him!'”
It is as if Job here says: ‘Why should I anxiously seek to preserve my life?’ The phrase properly means to commit one’s life to His hand to carry it through. ‘Why should I painfully strive to preserve my life? I am ready to risk my life! Behold, He will slay me! I will not wait for a more distant death. I wait for His final stroke!’
I will not eagerly make my flesh safe. I will take my soul into my own hand. I will calmly and bravely expose myself to the danger of death. I hope in Him. Though the Lord should slay me, yet will I hope in Him! I await no other happier outcome!
Many in the hour of their death, have adopted this utterance of Job as the expression of their faith and consolation. It is also, according to its most evident meaning, an expression of perfect resignation.
Luther is true to it, when he translates: ‘Behold, He will destroy me’ — but not annihilate me! I will not wait to justify myself!
The meaning then, which agrees both with the context and with the reality, is: ‘Behold, He will slay me! I wait for Him! I wait for whatever He may do — even to smite with death!
Job resigns himself even to death. He waits for Him to Whom he resigns himself, whatever He may do to him.
Job is prepared to render God an account of the ways in which he has walked. And in verse 15, he adds what will prove a triumph for him — ‘He shall also be my salvation!’ It here means salvation, as victory in a contest for the right. Job means he has already as good as won the contest before God. ‘Though He slays me — yet will I trust in Him!’
