Job recognized God's power and testified to His authority in chapter 12. In chapter 13, Job turns to emphasizing another essential characteristic we associate with the Lord: His goodness or justice.
Job knows that God is not just all-powerful; He is also good. The righteousness of God would not inflict unjustly the sufferings on Job that he has experienced. Job is sure of this, and he cautions his friends not to automatically defend God lest they say something untrue about Him (vs. 7-12).
What Job seems to be banking on is that God has somehow unknowingly brought this suffering on him. Job longs for an audience with God where he can argue his case (vs. 3). Even though he believes himself to be a lost cause, Job still feels this urgency to approach God with his situation (vs. 13-15). If he could just express himself to God, Job says he would be able to die satisfied (vs. 19).
To argue his case, Job asks for two indulgences: 1) for God to withdraw the terrible anguish Job is experiencing and 2) to not let Job feel the terror or dread of the Lord in His presence (vs. 21). With these two conditions met, Job has questions he would like to pose to God, such as asking for a list of sins he has supposedly committed and what Job has done to anger the Lord (vs. 23-26).
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