The Meaning of Job 13:3 Explained

Job 13:3

KJV: Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.

YLT: Yet I for the Mighty One do speak, And to argue for God I delight.

Darby: But I will speak to the Almighty, and will find pleasure in reasoning with God;

ASV: Surely I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to reason with God.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Surely  I would speak  to the Almighty,  and I desire  to reason  with God. 

What does Job 13:3 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 13:3 mean?

But I to the Almighty would speak and to reason with God I desire
אוּלָ֗ם אֲ֭נִי אֶל־ שַׁדַּ֣י אֲדַבֵּ֑ר וְהוֹכֵ֖חַ אֶל־ אֵ֣ל אֶחְפָּֽץ

שַׁדַּ֣י  the  Almighty 
Parse: Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: שַׁדַּי  
Sense: almighty, most powerful.
אֲדַבֵּ֑ר  would  speak 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: דָּבַר 
Sense: to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing.
וְהוֹכֵ֖חַ  and  to  reason 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hifil, Infinitive absolute
Root: יָכַח  
Sense: to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right.
אֵ֣ל  God 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֵל 
Sense: god, god-like one, mighty one.
אֶחְפָּֽץ  I  desire 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: חָפֵץ 
Sense: to delight in, take pleasure in, desire, be pleased with.