Daily Devotional · Job 13:15
Though He Slay Me, Yet Will I Hope
Reflection
Job's suffering was comprehensive and relentless. He had lost his children in a single day. His wealth was gone. His body was covered in painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. He sat in ashes, scraping his sores with broken pottery. His three friends — Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar — came to comfort him and stayed to accuse him. Their theology was neat: good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people. Therefore, Job's suffering proved his sin. Their comfort became torture. Job spoke back, and among the most remarkable things he said — in the middle of his pain, his confusion, his anger at God — was this: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face." This is not easy faith. This is not faith that God will make everything better. This is faith that God is worth trusting even if everything gets worse. Even if the worst happens. Even if He kills me. Job's faith was not in outcomes — it was in the character of the God he could not understand. He did not know why he was suffering. He could not reconcile his integrity with the evidence of his circumstances. But he would not abandon God. This is the purest form of trust: not because of what God gives, but because of who God is. It is the same faith that Paul would later call "the peace that passes understanding" — because it stands where understanding fails.
Background
Job 13:15 is one of the most contested verses in the Hebrew Bible — the MT (Masoretic Text) can be read as either "though he slay me, I will hope" or "though he slay me, I have no hope." Most modern translations follow the former reading (supported by the ancient versions), which fits the pattern of Job's determined faith throughout the dialogue. Job was not a passive sufferer — he was an active wrestler with God.
Truth
Faith that says "though he slay me" is the most durable faith — because it is not contingent on circumstances. It is not an optimism that things will improve. It is a conviction about who God is that no circumstance can reach.
Application
What would it mean in your current suffering to say "though he slay me, yet will I hope"? Is there something about your trust in God that is contingent on a certain outcome? Ask God to show you what unconditional trust in Him — trust that doesn't depend on a specific result — would look like for you today.