Hear now my reasoning - The speeches in this book are conceived as it delivered in a court of justice, different counselors pleading against each other. Hence most of the terms are forensic.

Hear now my reasoning,.... Job entreats his friends that they would be no longer speakers, but hearers; that they would vouchsafe to sit still, and hear what he had to say; though he was greatly afflicted, he had not lost his reason, wisdom was not driven out from him, Job 6:13; he had still with him his reasoning powers, which he was capable of making use of, and even before God, and desires that they would attend to what he had to say on his own behalf:

and hearken to the pleadings of my lips; he was capable of pleading his own cause, and he was desirous of doing it before God as his Judge; and begs the favour of his friends to be silent, and hear him out, and then let judgment be given, not by them, but by God himself.

Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

13:1-12 With self-preference, Job declared that he needed not to be taught by them. Those who dispute are tempted to magnify themselves, and lower their brethren, more than is fit. When dismayed or distressed with the fear of wrath, the force of temptation, or the weight of affliction, we should apply to the Physician of our souls, who never rejects any, never prescribes amiss, and never leaves any case uncured. To Him we may speak at all times. To broken hearts and wounded consciences, all creatures, without Christ, are physicians of no value. Job evidently speaks with a very angry spirit against his friends. They had advanced some truths which nearly concerned Job, but the heart unhumbled before God, never meekly receives the reproofs of men.