Job 19:12

12 His troops come on together; they have thrown up siegeworks against me, and encamp around my tent.

Job 19:12 Meaning and Commentary

Job 19:12

His troops come together
Afflictions which are many, and of which it may be said, as was at the birth of God, who had his name from the word here used, "a troop cometh": ( Genesis 30:11 ) ; and these sometimes come together, or follow so quick one upon another, that there is scarce any interval between them, as did Job's afflictions; and they are God's hosts, his troops, his soldiers, which are at his command; and he says to them, as the centurion did to his, to the one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and it comes:

and raise up their way against me;
as an army, when it comes against a place, throws up a bank to raise their artillery upon, that they may play it to greater advantage; or make a broad causeway, for the soldiers to march abreast against it; or an high cast up way, as the word F25 signifies, over a ditch or dirty place in a hollow, that they may the better pass over: some read it, "they raise up their way upon me" F26; he opposing and standing in the way was crushed down by them, and trampled upon, and over whom they passed as on an highway, and in a beaten path; see ( Isaiah 51:23 ) ; but most render it, "against me"; for Job looked upon all his afflictions, as Jacob did ( Genesis 42:36 ) , to be against him, to militate against him, and threaten him with ruin, when they were all working for him, even for his good:

and encamp round about my tabernacle:
as an army round about a city when besieging it. Job may have respect to the tabernacle of his body, as that is sometimes so called, ( 2 Corinthians 5:1 ) ( 2 Peter 1:13 2 Peter 1:14 ) ; and to the diseases of it; which being a complication, might be said to encamp about him, or surround him on all sides.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 (wloyw) "aggerant", Cocceius, Schultens; "straverunt", Montanus, Schmidt; a (hlom) "via strata et elevata", Mercerus, Drusius.
F26 (yle) "super me", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Schmidt, Michaelis.

Job 19:12 In-Context

10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me, and counts me as his adversary.
12 His troops come on together; they have thrown up siegeworks against me, and encamp around my tent.
13 "He has put my family far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives and my close friends have failed me;

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.