Job Chapter 19
1 Then Job answered,
2 "How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?
3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.
4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,
6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.
7 "Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me amongst his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.
13 "He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 "Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 "Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,
27 whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.
28 If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' because the root of the matter is found in me,
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement."
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Job Chapter 19 Guide
To this terrible accusation Job replied first with a rebuke and a complaint. He demanded how long they would vex him, and declared that if he had erred, his sin was his own. If they would continue, let them know that all his suffering was God's doing.
He then passed into a most terrible description of his condition. He cried for help, but had no answer from on high. As he found no answer in judgment from God, so he received no answer in pity from men.
It is out of the depth of this darkness that another &ash of light breaks. Conscious that in his own day he was misjudged and misunderstood, Job expressed a longing that the story could be so written as to make its appeal to the future. In this cry there is evidence of the underlying conviction of the man, that right must ultimately triumph. This deep conviction then expressed itself in words the profoundest value of which in all likelihood Job himself did not at the moment realize. He was certain that his vindicator lived, that somewhere in the future he would come into the midst of earthly surroundings. This led him deeper yet, and he declared his assurance that even though the flesh be destroyed, without it he should see God, and that God would be on his side, for such is the meaning of, "Whom I shall see for myself."
It is impossible for us to read this without seeing how these almost unutterable convictions and strivings were fulfilled. The Vindicator came in the process of time, and His words were written, and human consciousness pronounces for Him today.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Job Chapter 19 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- 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. (Job 19:8-22)
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.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.