Job19
New International Version
1Then Job replied:
2“How long will you torment me and crush me with words?
3Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.
4If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.
5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,
6then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.
7“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
10He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.
11His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.
12His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
13“He has alienated my family from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me.
15My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger.
16I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.
18Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.
19All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.
20I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
22Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,
24that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!
25I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
27I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
28“If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’
29you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Job 19.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Job complains of unkind usage. (1–7). God was the Author of his afflictions. (8–22). Job's belief in the resurrection. (23–29).
vv1-7
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. (Job 19:8-22)
vv8-22
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.
vv23-29
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.
Key Words
אִיּוֹב: Ijob, the patriarch famous for his patience
עָנָה: properly, to eye or (generally) to heed, i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond; by extension to begin to speak; specifically to sing, shout, testify, announce
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
אָן: where?; hence, whither?, when?; also hither and thither
עַד: as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)
יָגָה: to grieve
נֶפֶשׁ: properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)
דָּכָא: to crumble; transitively, to bruise (literally or figuratively)
מִלָּה: a word; collectively, a discourse; figuratively, a topic
זֶה: the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that
Cross References
Job 19Poole and Henry connect Job's hope in the resurrection to Psalm 16:9's flesh resting in hope.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Matches the imagery of being hedged/fenced in so that one cannot pass.
Supported by Matthew Poole
JFB links the estrangement of Job's loved ones to Christ's desertion prefigured in Psalm 38:11.
Supported by JFB
Job's estrangement from friends and kinsmen typifies Christ's acquaintances standing afar off.
Supported by JFB
JFB identifies the estrangement from family (mother's children) as foreshadowing Christ's experience.
Supported by JFB
Poole and JFB note 'ten times' is an idiomatic term for 'many times' as in Genesis.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Poole points to this verse as another scriptural example of 'ten times' meaning 'many times'.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Uses identical imagery of the crown falling or being taken from the head.
Supported by JFB
Parallel complaint where Job explicitly asks why God counts him as His enemy.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Identifies the terrible trial of being counted and treated by God as an enemy.
Supported by JFB
JFB notes the same physical affliction of bones cleaving to the skin/flesh from weeping.
Supported by JFB
Job directly retorts Bildad's initial questioning query from the previous chapter.
Supported by JFB
Parallel regarding adversaries magnifying themselves when a sufferer's foot slips.
Supported by JFB
Job directly answers Bildad's net metaphor, asserting it was God who netted him.
Supported by JFB
Relates to Job's ongoing defense that 'the root of the matter' or sound wisdom is in him.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Illustrates ancient practices of writing or engraving words permanently on stone.
Supported by Matthew Poole