Job 19
Big idea: The most famous confidence in the book is spoken from its most abandoned moment. Job describes being deserted by relatives, servants, wife and children, asks his friends for pity, and then says he knows that his vindicator lives and that he will see God with his own eyes.
The wish to have the words engraved in rock is granted in the most literal way possible — they are among the most-quoted lines in Scripture.
19:1–12 — He has walled up my way
The complaint about the friends is now specific and countable: how long will you torment me and crush me with words? You have reproached me ten times; you are not ashamed that you wrong me. And the logical point underneath it is good — if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself. Even granting their premise, a private fault is not their business to prosecute.
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 among his adversaries. 12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.
19:13–22 — Have pity on me, my friends
The social collapse is listed by relationship, and the order matters because it works outward and then inward: brothers put far away, acquaintances estranged, relatives gone, familiar friends forgotten. Then the household — those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. I call my servant and he gives me no answer; I have to beg him with my mouth.
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?
19:23–29 — I know that my Redeemer lives
The wish comes first and it is about permanence: oh that my words were written, that they were inscribed in a book, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. He wants the record to outlast him, because he does not expect to be vindicated in his own lifetime.
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 judgment.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).