Job 19:7-29

Everything Is against Him

7 "Behold, ¹I cry, 'Violence!' but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.

8 "He has ²walled up my way so that I cannot pass, And He has put ³darkness on my paths.

9 "He has ⁴stripped my honor from me And removed the ⁵crown from my head.

10 "He ⁶breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; And He has uprooted my ⁷hope ⁸like a tree.

11 "He has also ⁹kindled His anger against me And ¹⁰considered me as His enemy.

12 "His ¹¹troops come together, And ¹²build up their way against me And camp around my tent.

13 "He has ¹³removed my brothers far from me, And my ¹⁴acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14 "My relatives have failed, And my ¹⁵intimate friends have forgotten me.

15 "Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.

16 "I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with my mouth.

17 "My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers *.

18 "Even young children despise me; I rise up and they speak against me.

19 "All my ¹⁶associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me.

20 "My ¹⁷bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21 "Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, For the ¹⁸hand of God has struck me.

22 "Why do you ¹⁹persecute me as God does, And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, ``My Redeemer Lives"

23 "Oh * that my words were written! Oh * that they were ²⁰inscribed in a book!

24 "That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!

25 "As for me, I know that ²¹my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

26 "Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall ²²see God;

27 Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart ²³faints within me!

28 "If you say, 'How shall we ²⁴persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find?'

29 "Then be afraid of ²⁵the sword for yourselves, For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, So that you may know ²⁶there is judgment."

Job 19:7-29 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 19

This chapter contains Job's reply to Bildad's second speech, in which he complains of the ill usage of his friends, of their continuing to vex him, and to beat, and bruise, and break him in pieces with their hard words, and to reproach him, and carry it strange to him, Job 19:1-3; which he thought was very cruel, since, if he was mistaken, the mistake lay with himself, Job 19:4; and if they were determined to go on at this rate, he would have them observe, that his afflictions were of God, and therefore should take care to what they imputed them, since he could not get the reasons of them, or his cause to be heard, though he vehemently and importunately sought it, Job 19:5-7; and then gives an enumeration of the several particulars of his distress, all which he ascribes to God, Job 19:8-12; and he enlarges upon that part of his unhappy case, respecting the alienation of his nearest relations, most intimate acquaintance and friends, from him, and their contempt of him, and the like treatment he met with from his servants, and even young children, Job 19:13-19; all which, with other troubles, had such an effect upon him as to reduce him to a mere skeleton, and which he mentions to move the pity of these his friends, now conversing with him, Job 19:20-22; and yet after all, and in the midst of it, and which was his great support under his trials, he expresses his strong faith in his living Redeemer, who should appear on the earth in the latter day, and be his Saviour, and in the resurrection of the dead through him, which he believed he should share in, and in all the happiness consequent on it; and he wishes this confession of his faith might be written and engraven, and be preserved on a rock for ever for the good of posterity, Job 19:23-27; and closes the chapter with an expostulation with his friends, dissuading them from persecuting him any longer, since there was no reason for it in himself, and it might be attended with bad consequences to them, Job 19:28,29.

Cross References

• 1. Job 9:24; Job 30:20, 24; Habakkuk 1:2
• 2. Job 3:23; Lamentations 3:7, 9
• 3. Job 30:26
• 4. Job 12:17, 19; Psalms 89:44
• 5. Job 16:15; Psalms 89:39; Lamentations 5:16
• 6. Job 12:14
• 7. Job 7:6
• 8. Job 24:20
• 9. Job 16:9
• 10. Job 13:24; Job 33:10
• 11. Job 16:13
• 12. Job 30:12
• 13. Job 16:7; Psalms 69:8
• 14. Job 16:20; Psalms 88:8, 18
• 15. Job 19:19
• 16. Psalms 38:11; Psalms 55:12, 13
• 17. Job 16:8; Job 33:21; Psalms 102:5; Lamentations 4:8
• 18. Job 1:11; Psalms 38:2
• 19. Job 13:24, 25; Job 16:11; Job 19:6; Psalms 69:26
• 20. Isaiah 30:8; Jeremiah 36:2
• 21. Job 16:19; Psalms 78:35; Proverbs 23:11; Isaiah 43:14; Jeremiah 50:34
• 22. Psalms 17:15; Matthew 5:8; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2
• 23. Psalms 73:26
• 24. Job 19:22
• 25. Job 15:22
• 26. Job 22:4; Psalms 1:5; Psalms 9:7; Ecclesiastes 12:14

Footnotes

• [a]. I.e. siegework
• [b]. Lit "strange"
• [c]. Lit "the men of my council"
• [d]. Or "Vindicator, defender;" lit "kinsman"
• [e]. Or "as the Last"
• [f]. Lit "dust"
• [g]. Lit "which they have cut off"
• [h]. Or "on my side"
• [i]. Lit "kidneys"
• [j]. Lit "in my loins"
• [k]. Or "the root of the matter is found in him"