The Meaning of Job 13:18 Explained

Job 13:18

KJV: Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

YLT: Lo, I pray you, I have set in order the cause, I have known that I am righteous.

Darby: Behold now, I have ordered the cause; I know that I shall be justified.

ASV: Behold now, I have set my cause in order; I know that I am righteous.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Behold now, I have ordered  [my] cause;  I know  that I shall be justified. 

What does Job 13:18 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 13:1-28 - "though He Slay Me"
The sufferer first rebukes his friends, Job 13:4-12. Then he makes an appeal to God, affirming that he was no hypocrite, and asking that his sins, for which he was suffering, might be set down, Job 13:23.
When Job said that he knew himself to be righteous, he was clearly speaking of known sin; he knew, so far as a man may know himself, that he had not committed the sins of which his friends charged him. He could bare his life to the inspection of men and angels, being sure that no accusation of which human law-courts would take cognizance could be established against him. But this is a very different matter with the divine tribunal. When a fuller light had shone upon him from the face of God, when the patriarch had seen Him instead of merely hearing of Him by the ear, then he would "abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes," Job 42:5-6.
Job 13:15 is almost the greatest sentence ever uttered by mortal lips! Let us ask for grace to affirm it. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 13

1  Job reproves his friends for partiality
14  He professes his confidence in God;
19  and entreats to know his own sins, and God's purpose in afflicting him

What do the individual words in Job 13:18 mean?

See now I have prepared [my] case I know that I shall be vindicated
הִנֵּה־ נָ֭א עָרַ֣כְתִּי מִשְׁפָּ֑ט יָ֝דַ֗עְתִּי כִּֽי־ אֲנִ֥י אֶצְדָּֽק

הִנֵּה־  See 
Parse: Interjection
Root: הִנֵּה  
Sense: behold, lo, see, if.
נָ֭א  now 
Parse: Interjection
Root: נָא  
Sense: I (we) pray, now, please.
עָרַ֣כְתִּי  I  have  prepared 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, first person common singular
Root: עָרַךְ  
Sense: to arrange, set or put or lay in order, set in array, prepare, order, ordain, handle, furnish, esteem, equal, direct, compare.
מִשְׁפָּ֑ט  [my]  case 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: מִשְׁפָּט  
Sense: judgment, justice, ordinance.
יָ֝דַ֗עְתִּי  I  know 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, first person common singular
Root: דָּעָה 
Sense: to know.
כִּֽי־  that 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: כִּי 
Sense: that, for, because, when, as though, as, because that, but, then, certainly, except, surely, since.
אֶצְדָּֽק  shall  be  vindicated 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: צָדַק  
Sense: to be just, be righteous.