Job 19:27

Whom I shall see for myself,.... For his pleasure and profit, to his great advantage and happiness, and to his inexpressible joy and satisfaction, see Psalms 17:15; and mine eyes shall behold, and

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. For myself - for my advantage, as my friend, vindicating my innocence and delivering me from all my calamities.

Whom I shall see, in manner before and after expressed. No wonder that he repeats it again, because the meditation of it was most sweet to him. For myself, i.e. for my own comfort and benefit, as that phrase is oft used. Or, which is much of the same importance, on my behalf; to plead my cause, and vindicate me from all your reproaches. Not another, to wit, for me, or in my stead. I shall not see God by another’ s eyes, but by my own, and by these selfsame eyes in this same body which now I have. Heb. not a stranger, i.e. this privilege shall be granted to me and to all other sincere servants of God, but not to strangers, i.e. to wicked men, who are oft called strangers, as ,45 54:3 , because they are estranged or alienated from God, and from his service and people. And if I were such a one, as you suppose me to be, I could never hope to enjoy that happiness. Though my reins be consumed within me: this I do confidently expect and hope for, though at present my case seems desperate, my very inward parts being even consumed with grief; and though, as I have said, the grave and the worms will consume my whole body, not excepting the reins, which seem to be safest and furthest out of their reach. Or without though, which is not in the Hebrew, my reins are consumed within me. So this may be a sudden and passionate ejaculation or exclamation, (such as we find , and oft in the Book of Psalms,) arising from the contemplation and confident expectation of this his unspeakable happiness, wherein he expresseth his vehement desire and longing for that blessed time and state. The reins are oft put for earnest desires or affections, whereof they are supposed to be the seat; as . And men are oft in Scripture said to be consumed or eaten up, or the like, by ardent affections; as 84:2 119:81,8.

Job 19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me.Ver. 27. Whom I shall see for myself] He speaketh confidently, as one fully assured of a resurrection; which, if it should not be, how should there be a remuneration of the body? Say not, we cannot see how it is possible. See we not a yearly resurrection of grass, grain, herbs, flowers, fruits, every spring time? Know we not that men can of ashes make glasses? that a chemist can of several metals, mixed together, extract the one from the other, and reduce every metal to its own species or kind? Etiam animalculae quaedam typi Resurrectionis sunt, saith Lavater: Some little living creatures are types of the resurrection. He instanceth in dormancey, which sleep all winter, and revive in the spring; in silkworms, which, dying, leave nothing behind them but a certain excrement, which, being borne about in the bosoms of women, takes heat and reviveth. Wherefore, if nature do such things, shall it be held hard for the God of nature to raise the dead? The keeping green of Noah’ s olive tree in the time of the flood; the blossoming of Aaron’ s dry rod; the flesh and sinews coming to Ezekiel’ s dry bones; what were these but living emblems of the resurrection? And mine eyes shall behold, and not another] Here he maintaineth the identity of his flesh and body in the resurrection; an identity, I say, not specific only, but numeric or individual. The self-same particular body which fell shall rise. This was denied of old by the Marcionists, Basilidians, and Valentinians (those semi-Sadducees, as Tertullian termeth them); and after them Eutychius, bishop of Constantinople, who, as Gregory saith, taught that men, rising again, should have airy bodies, and not fleshly, yea, more subtile than the air, abusing that place of the apostle, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised again a spiritual body," &c.: but his book was burnt as heretical. A spiritual body it is called, for its great strength and activity wherewith it shall be endowed, and whereby it is enabled to bear a weight of glory; as also, for that it shall have no need of food, sleep, or other natural helps, but we shall be as the angels of God, Matthew 22:30, yet still the same men that now we are. Let no man say, with Nicodemus, How can this be? There is no difficulty to Omnipotence, Philippians 3:21. Besides, there is a substance still preserved, even when the body is turned to dust, and this shall be raised, clarified, and reunited to the soul. He that made man at first of nothing, can easily remake him of something. And what though his dust be scattered hither and thither, and mixed with that of others?

(27) Whom I shall see for myself.—The words “see for myself” may mean see on my side, i.e., as my Judge and Avenger; or they may be the personal intensifying of the conviction which seems confirmed by the words, “and not a stranger.” Do Job’s words then teach the doctrine of the resurrection? Possibly not directly, but they express the firm conviction of that faith of which the resurrection is the only natural justification; they express a living trust in a living personal God, who, if He is to come into contact with man, cannot suffer His Holy One to see corruption nor leave His soul in hell. How far Job believed in the resurrection of the flesh hereafter, he certainly believed there was life out of death and through death here; and no man can believe in a living God and not believe that He must and will triumph over death. It is possible for us to believe in some dogma about the resurrection, and yet not believe in God. In this respect we shall be unlike Job. It is impossible for us to believe as he did and not be ready and thankful to believe in the resurrection of Christ, and of those who belong to Christ, as soon as the fact is proclaimed to us on sufficient authority. In this way, and for this reason, the confession of Job rightly stands at the head of the Christian Office for the Burial of the Dead, which looks forward to the resurrection, and lays fast hold thereon. Those who decline to see in Job’s confession any knowledge or hope of a resurrection, must not forget that they have also to explain and account for Isaiah 26:19.

Verse 27. Whom I shall see for myself] Have a personal interest in the resurrection, as I shall have in the Redeemer. And mine eyes shall behold] That very person who shall be the resurrection, as he is the life. And not another] ולא זר velo zar, and not a stranger, one who has no relation to human nature; but גאלי goali, my redeeming Kinsman. Though my reins be consumed within me.] Though I am now apparently on the brink of death, the thread of life being spun out to extreme tenuity. This, on the mode of interpretation which I have assumed, appears to be the meaning of this passage. The words may have a somewhat different colouring put on them; but the basis of the interpretation will be the same. I shall conclude with the version of Coverdale: - For I am sure that my Redeemer liveth; And that I shal ryse out of the earth in the latter daye; That I shal be clothed againe with this skynne And se God in my flesh. Yee, I myself shal beholde him, Not with other, but with these same eyes. My reins are consumed within me, when ye saye, Why do not we persecute him? We have founde an occasion against him.

27. Whom I shall see for myself] These words might mean merely, whom I myself shall see; or, for myself may mean, favourable to me, on my side and to my joy. and not another] i. e. I and not another (shall see). Job heaps up phrases to express his assurance that he shall see God, “I shall see for myself,” “mine eyes shall behold,” “I and not another.” The whole of his misery might be expressed in saying that God hid Himself from him, and the whole of his redemption and joy will consist in seeing God. Others take the words “not another,” lit. not a stranger, to refer to God—whom I shall see not as a stranger, i. e. no more estranged or hostile. The position of the words, however, close beside the phrase “mine eyes,” is rather in favour of the other view. though my reins be consumed] Rather, my reins consume within me, lit. in my bosom (marg.). The words are an exclamation, meaning I faint, cf. Psalms 73:26; Psalms 84:2; Psalms 119:81; Psalms 119:123. The reins are the seat of the deepest feelings and experiences, especially of those toward God. Job began with expressing his assurance that he should see God, but as he proceeds so vivid is his hope that it becomes almost reality, the intensity of his thought creates an ecstatic condition of mind in which the vision of God seems almost realized, and he faints in the presence of it. See Additional Note on ch. Job 19:23-27 at the end of the Volume.

Whom I shall see for myself - It will not come to be by mere report. I shall not merely hear of the decision of God in my favor, but I shall myself behold him.

27. Whom I — See note on Job 19:25. Mine eyes — If the sight of God be solely that of the disembodied spirit, as many think, the expression “mine eyes” is superfluous and misleading.