Job 19

Job Feels Insulted

1 Then Job responded *,

2 "How long will you torment me And crush me with words?

3 "These ten times you have insulted me; You are not ashamed to wrong me.

4 "Even if I have truly erred, My error lodges with me.

5 "If indeed you ¹vaunt yourselves against me And prove my disgrace to me,

6 Know then that ²God has wronged me And has closed ³His net around me.

Everything Is against Him

7 "Behold, ⁴I cry, 'Violence!' but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.

8 "He has ⁵walled up my way so that I cannot pass, And He has put ⁶darkness on my paths.

9 "He has ⁷stripped my honor from me And removed the ⁸crown from my head.

10 "He ⁹breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; And He has uprooted my ¹⁰hope ¹¹like a tree.

11 "He has also ¹²kindled His anger against me And ¹³considered me as His enemy.

12 "His ¹⁴troops come together, And ¹⁵build up their way against me And camp around my tent.

13 "He has ¹⁶removed my brothers far from me, And my ¹⁷acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14 "My relatives have failed, And my ¹⁸intimate 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 ¹⁹associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me.

20 "My ²⁰bone 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 ²¹hand of God has struck me.

22 "Why do you ²²persecute 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 ²³inscribed 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 ²⁴my 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 ²⁵see God;

27 Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart ²⁶faints within me!

28 "If you say, 'How shall we ²⁷persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find?'

29 "Then be afraid of ²⁸the sword for yourselves, For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, So that you may know ²⁹there is judgment."

Job 19 Commentary

Chapter 19

Job complains of unkind usage. (1-7) God was the Author of his afflictions. (8-22) Job's belief in the resurrection. (23-29)

Verses 1-7 Job's friends blamed him as a wicked man, because he was so afflicted; here he describes their unkindness, showing that what they condemned was capable of excuse. Harsh language from friends, greatly adds to the weight of afflictions: yet it is best not to lay it to heart, lest we harbour resentment. Rather let us look to Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and was treated with far more cruelty than Job was, or we can be.

Verses 8-22 How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the friendship of men! but if God be our Friend, he will not fail us in time of need. What little reason we have to indulge the body, which, after all our care, is consumed by diseases it has in itself. Job recommends himself to the compassion of his friends, and justly blames their harshness. It is very distressing to one who loves God, to be bereaved at once of outward comfort and of inward consolation; yet if this, and more, come upon a believer, it does not weaken the proof of his being a child of God and heir of glory.

Verses 23-29 The Spirit of God, at this time, seems to have powerfully wrought on the mind of Job. Here he witnessed a good confession; declared the soundness of his faith, and the assurance of his hope. Here is much of Christ and heaven; and he that said such things are these, declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly. Job was taught of God to believe in a living Redeemer; to look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come; he comforted himself with the expectation of these. Job was assured, that this Redeemer of sinners from the yoke of Satan and the condemnation of sin, was his Redeemer, and expected salvation through him; and that he was a living Redeemer, though not yet come in the flesh; and that at the last day he would appear as the Judge of the world, to raise the dead, and complete the redemption of his people. With what pleasure holy Job enlarges upon this! May these faithful sayings be engraved by the Holy Spirit upon our hearts. We are all concerned to see that the root of the matter be in us. A living, quickening, commanding principle of grace in the heart, is the root of the matter; as necessary to our religion as the root of the tree, to which it owes both its fixedness and its fruitfulness. Job and his friends differed concerning the methods of Providence, but they agreed in the root of the matter, the belief of another world.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 35:26; Psalms 38:16; Psalms 55:12, 13
• 2. Job 16:11; Job 27:2
• 3. Job 18:8-10; Psalms 66:11; Lamentations 1:13
• 4. Job 9:24; Job 30:20, 24; Habakkuk 1:2
• 5. Job 3:23; Lamentations 3:7, 9
• 6. Job 30:26
• 7. Job 12:17, 19; Psalms 89:44
• 8. Job 16:15; Psalms 89:39; Lamentations 5:16
• 9. Job 12:14
• 10. Job 7:6
• 11. Job 24:20
• 12. Job 16:9
• 13. Job 13:24; Job 33:10
• 14. Job 16:13
• 15. Job 30:12
• 16. Job 16:7; Psalms 69:8
• 17. Job 16:20; Psalms 88:8, 18
• 18. Job 19:19
• 19. Psalms 38:11; Psalms 55:12, 13
• 20. Job 16:8; Job 33:21; Psalms 102:5; Lamentations 4:8
• 21. Job 1:11; Psalms 38:2
• 22. Job 13:24, 25; Job 16:11; Job 19:6; Psalms 69:26
• 23. Isaiah 30:8; Jeremiah 36:2
• 24. Job 16:19; Psalms 78:35; Proverbs 23:11; Isaiah 43:14; Jeremiah 50:34
• 25. Psalms 17:15; Matthew 5:8; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2
• 26. Psalms 73:26
• 27. Job 19:22
• 28. Job 15:22
• 29. Job 22:4; Psalms 1:5; Psalms 9:7; Ecclesiastes 12:14

Footnotes

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

Chapter Summary

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.