Job 19

TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION

1-2 Why do you keep tormenting me with words?

3 Time after time you insult me,

and show no shame for the way you abuse me.

4 Suppose I have done wrong. How does that hurt you? 5 You think you are better than I am,

and regard my trouble as proof of my guilt.

6 Can-’t you see it is God who has done this?

He has set a trap to catch me.

7 I protest his violence, but no one listens;

I call for justice, but there isn-’t any.

8 God has blocked the way, and I can-’t get through;

he has covered my path with darkness.

9 He has taken away all my wealth,

and destroyed my reputation.

10 He batters me from every side.

He uproots my hope

and leaves me to wither and die.

11 God is angry and rages against me;

and treats me like his worst enemy.

12 He sends his army to attack me;

they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.

13 God has made my brothers forsake me;

I am a stranger to those who knew me;

14 my relatives and friends are gone. 15 Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me;

my housemaids treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.

16 When I call a servant he doesn-’t answer

even when I beg him to help me.

17 My wife can-’t stand the smell of my breath,

and my own brothers won-’t come near me.

18 Children despise me and laugh when they see me. 19 My closest friends look at me with disgust;

those I loved most have turned against me.

20 My skin hangs loose on my bones;

I have barely escaped with my life.

21 You are my friends! Take pity on me!

The hand of God has struck me down.

22 Why must you persecute me the way God does?

Haven-’t you tormented me enough?

23 How I wish someone would record what I am saying,

and write my words in a book!

24 Or with a chisel carve my words in stone,

and write them so they would last forever.

25 But I know there is someone in heaven

who will come at last to my defense.

26 Even after my skin is eaten by disease,

in this body I will see God.

27 I will see him with my own eyes,

and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you men said,

28 How can we torment him?

You looked for some excuse to attack me.

29 But now, be afraid of the sword

the sword that brings God’s wrath on sin,

so that you will know there is one who judges.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 19:1-29

How does Job become our great paradigm of growth through suffering? Discuss.

How does Job’s new found faith express itself?

The word vex in verse two is not strong enough. What should it be?

Can we count ten times of reproach? How is the figure ten to be understood?

Verse four is a very difficult verse to interpret. How are we to understand it?

How easy it is to assume an air of superiority in the presence of weakness. What does this do for the weak? Cf. Job 19:5.

How does verse six prove that verse four was not a confession of guilt?

Job is constantly conscious of his own innocence. On what subject? Discuss.

In what sense has God walled Job in?

What was the crown of glory once worn by Job?

Job uses two graphic metaphors in verse ten to describe his condition. What are they?

In what sense was God Job’s adversary?

How are we to understand the phrase cast up their way against me?

God’s apparent hostility has produced human hostility. Why? Show the progression.

If we believe a man is suffering because of his own sin, can we yet show him that we really care? Discuss.

Job has lost the respect of his servants. Why? Cf. Job 19:15-16.

Job’s physical appearance is a real hindrance to social exchange. Discuss why.

Who are the children in Job 19:17 b?

In what way is estrangement or alienation a fundamental issue in our culture?

Disrespect on the part of children calls for drastic measures. Discuss. Cf. 2 Kings 2:23.

In your own words give the meaning of Job 19:20.

Job’s friends could have had pity for him even if they felt he was guilty. Is this what Job needed? Discuss.

Show how Job 19:22 is appropriate to our age.

Job 19:1-4

D.

HOPE IN TIME OF ABANDONMENTVINDICATED BY HIS VINDICATOR (GO-‘EL) (Job 19:1-29)

He condemns the friends for shameless abuse. (Job 19:1-4)

TEXT 19:1-4

**1 Then Job answered and said,

2 How long will ye vex my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

3 These ten times have ye reproached me:

Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.

4 And be it indeed that I have erred,

Mine error remaineth with myself.**

COMMENT 19:1-4

**Job 19:1**Job’s comforters show no development in their encounter with him. In contrast, Job has analyzed his position as the result of their criticism. Job thus becomes our great paradigm of growth through suffering. We either see our troubles through God, or God through our troubles. What alternatives are available? In this, Job’s central discourse, he achieves a profound faith, which enables him to triumph over his destructive despair. He truly attained hope in time of abandonment. New power and pathos enter Job’s literary style. This new power retouches themes which are set forth in his earlier speeches, egs.: (1) validity of a clear conscience, Job 6:30; Job 9:29; Job 10:7; Job 16:17, which the righteous judge would ratify if only He would hear themJob 10:2; Job 10:7; Job 13:23; Job 16:21; (2) knowledge that God must yearn for him as he does for GodJob 7:8; Job 7:21; Job 10:8-9; Job 14:15; and (3) his hope that God will finally vindicate himJob 14:13-15; Job 16:19-20. Job’s response to Bildad contains four parts: (1) His impatience with his friendsJob 19:2-6; (2) God’s abandonment and attackJob 19:7-12; (3) Laments his forsaken condition and appeals to his friends once moreJob 19:13-22; and (4) His certainty concerning his vindicationJob 19:23-29. Does the speech present God’s attitude change toward Job? Is He his enemy? The change is only apparent and temporary. Though Job’s friends are uncharitable, and God is silent in the presence of his agonizing cries, Job waits for vindication. But until then!

**Job 19:2**His friends have grievously wounded (tormented) Job by their insinuations. Vex is not strong enough for the Hebrew word; the same verb is used in Isaiah 51:23 of Israel’s tormentors. In Lamentations 1:5; Lamentations 1:12, the same word is used to describe the suffering which God inflicted on Israel. The verb (dk-’) translated as break me in pieces is used of the penitent in Isaiah 57:15 and Psalms 51:17. It means crush and is here employed to describe the effects of the charges from Job’s friends. I am crushed by your insinuations, not led to repentance.

**Job 19:3**The figure 10 is to be understood as a round number and not as Rashi took it as referring to the number of speechesfive for Job and five for friendsGen 31:7; Genesis 31:41; Numbers 14:22. His friends have wronged him. The verb is found only here and does not call for endless proliferation of emendations. Job is enduring God’s silence; need they add their inhumane treatment to his already overburdened life?

**Job 19:4**This is a very difficult verse whose meaning is not self-evident. Perhaps the best understanding is found in the R. S. V. There it is translated as a hypothetical sentence, though there is no hypothetical particle present. This move enables us to understand the verse without it being an admission of guilt of secret sin, which Job has consistently denied. Taking the verse to mean Even if I have sinned, I have not injured you (Rowley, Job, p. 167).

Job 19:5-12

2. He has been overthrown by God. (Job 9:5-12)

TEXT 19:5-12

**5 If Indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

And plead against me my reproach;

6 Know now that God hath subverted me **in my cause,

**And hath compassed 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 hath walled up my way that I cannot pass,

And hath set darkness in my paths.

9 He hath stripped me of my glory.

And taken the crown from my head.

10 He hath broken me down on every side,

and I am gone; And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.

11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me,

And he counteth me unto him as **one of **his adversaries.

12 His troops come on together,

And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent.**

COMMENT 19:5-12

**Job 19:5**Job chides his friends for assuming an air of superiority. If taken as a rhetorical question, the answer is clearly positive. The verb translated magnify has a negative sense here as in Psalms 35:26; Psalms 38:16. The last line contains a verb used in Job 16:21 and here means plead my disgrace against me. His humiliation is taken as proof of the accuracy of their charge.

**Job 19:6**This verse is proof that Job 19:4 does not contain a confession of guilt. Bildad has asserted that the godless man is caught in his own net in Job 18:8. The word for net is a different one from any employed by Bildad. Here the image is one of a hunter’s large net into which animals are driven.

**Job 19:7**Job’s friends have built their arguments on the doctrines of divine justice from the assumption that he is conscious of his own innocence. The verse begins with emphatic appeal to injusticeHab 1:2 and Jeremiah 20:8. The same verb cry aloud appears in Job 24:12; Job 19:12; Job 30:28; Job 35:9; Job 36:13. Yet, his pitiful cries for help go unheard. God remains silent.

**Job 19:8**Job has been hemmed in; restrictions surround himLam 3:7; Hosea 2:6; Job 3:23; Job 13:27; Job 14:5. In Job 1:10 Satan had asserted that God had placed protective barriers around Job. Perhaps darkness should be amended to thorn hedge.[205]

[205] A. Guillaume, Promise and Fulfillment, ed. by F. F. Bruce, 1963, pp. 106ff.

**Job 19:9**The crown of glory (kabodLXX doxa)[206] is a metaphor for esteem. Job’s crown of righteousness has been removed from himPsa 8:5. Shame as a garment is an image used in Job 8:22. Honor is a garment to be worn by the godly, or removed fromstripped offthe unrighteousJob 29:14; Isaiah 61:3. Job was once a prosperous man who enjoyed an honorable reputation; now he has nothing.

[206] Kittel and von Rad, Doxa, TWNT, Vol. II, 232-255.

**Job 19:10**The metaphors are rich and varied. In this verse God has pulled Job down as one wrecks a building. The second metaphor is that of a tree uprootedPsa 52:5. The common verbhalakmeaning walk used metaphorically as a way of life, i.e., life style, here appears as an image of death, death as a way of existence.

**Job 19:11**The metaphor now shifts to warfare. God will not cease His aggression against Job. God is pictured as a leader directing one attack after another on JobJob 10:17; Job 16:12 ff. The Hebrew text has the plural, his adversaries, but here it is God and probably should be in the singular, his adversary.

**Job 19:12**The military metaphor is extended. Here the troops are raising a siege ramp. But there is a strong conflict between the image of the siege ramp and a tent. One does not need to besiege a tent with an attack force. Perhaps this tension suggests the inequity of it all.

Job 19:13-19

3. And despised by all people, including his kindred (Job 19:13-19)

TEXT 19:13-19

**13 He hath put my brethren far from me,

And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.

14 My kinsfolk have failed,

And my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger:

I am an alien in their sight.

16 I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,**

Though **I entreat him with my mouth.

17 My breath is strange to my wife,

And my supplication to the children of mine own mother.

18 Even young children despise me;

If I arise, they speak against me.

19 All my familiar friends abhor me,

And they whom I loved are turned against me.**

COMMENT 19:13-19

**Job 19:13**God’s apparent hostility produces human hostility. Isolation and loneliness are radically contrasted with the sequence of relationships which develop from less to more intimate: (1) My brethrenJob 19:13 a; (2) men of my familyJob 19:17 b; (3) my intimate friendsJob 19:19. All of the intimate[207] relationships necessary for life have been ripped apart. Total estrangement is Job’s pitiful lot.[208]

[207] See cultural crises which are visible in our institutions; see interrelationship and Systems Analysis, Sears and Feldman, The Seven Ages of Man (Los Altos, Calif.: Wm. Kaufman, 1973 ed.); and Anderson and Carter, Human Behavior in Social Environment (Chicago: Aldine Pub. Co., 1974). Note the developments in contemporary interpersonal psychological studies such as Ericson, Maslov, Sullivan, et al and their analysis of hierarchy of needs, levels of needs. Man is gregarious by nature. Men are not born into a nation or universe but a family unit. See my Newness on the Earth, chp. 7, Christians come of age in a world come of age, pp. 113-125, for look at the biblical-maturity model.

[208] Estrangement or alienation is a fundamental issue in our culture. Since Hegel and Marx, the Christian view of alienation has been under severe attack. Both Existentialism and Neo-Marxism challenge the biblical data. See R. Schacht, Alienation (Doubleday Anchor, 1971) for basic survey; Marxism and Alienation, ed. by H. Aptheker (New York: Humanities Press); and for the neo-Marxism of Bangkok Conference of WCC, 1973. For critique, see my The Word of God for a Broken World (Lincoln, IL: LCC Press, 1977).

**Job 19:14**Job has a right to expect his most intimate friends to stand by him in his great hours of darknessPs. 88:19. In his most desperate hours, he is abandoned by all those with whom he has had intimate interpersonal relations. To whom can he turn? Who cares?

**Job 19:15**Even the sojourners of his house rejected him. He even lost the respect of his maidservants and obedience of slaves; this is the depth of humiliation. Job has experienced a totally broken existence, from alienation to humiliation.

**Job 19:16**He has sunk so low that even his personal servant ignores him. This is the bitterest form of humiliation and proof of the incredible depth into which he has fallenPsa 123:2. His social status has been obliterated; even the slaves will not respond when he personally calls them.

**Job 19:17**Job’s skin is ravaged with eruptions and itchingJob 2:7-8; Job 2:12; Job 7:5; Job 7:14; Job 16:16; Job 19:20; Job 30:17; Job 30:30. Now halitosis is added to his other symptoms. His physical appearance is appalling, and has contributed to his social ostracization. The second line in the A. V. does not represent the Hebrew text which literally says the sons of my womb. This cannot refer to Job’s children, as they are already dead. Since there is no mention of concubines, it probably does not refer to their children. The best meaning in this context is Job’s mother’s wombJob 3:10. Womb is used for body in Micah 6:7 and Ps. 82:11. The phrase would ordinarily mean Job’s children, but this is all but precluded by the present context.

**Job 19:18**Even the children show disrespect for Job, as he rises and attempts to walk. Such disrespect calls for drastic punishment2 Kings 2:23. Perhaps the second line means that even little children turn their backs on Job, rather than speak against him.[209]

[209] For this suggestion, see I. Eitan, Jewish Quarterly Review, 1923-24, pp. 38ff.

**Job 19:19**Literally the first line says men of my intimate group or his bosom friendsGen 49:6; Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 15:17; Jeremiah 23:18; Psalms 25:14; Psalms 55:15have turned against me.[210]

[210] T. Penar, Biblica, 1967, pp. 293ff, for this last clause.

Job 19:20-22

4. He utters a plea for pity. (Job 19:20-22)

TEXT 19:20-22

**20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,

And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my Mends;

For the hand of God hath touched me.

22 Why do ye persecute me as God,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?**

COMMENT 19:20-22

**Job 19:20**Though the general meaning is obvious, the verse has failed to yield up its grammatical secrets to those whose very lives have been spent in studying this language. The essence isI have nothing but my bones and the skin of my teeth (Brown, Driver, Briggs understand this as gums), and I am nothing.[211] Mere survival is the only claim he can make. The verse has a certain proverbial tone about it. At least it is possible that the meaning is that suggested by Popemy flesh rots on my bones, my teeth drop from my gums. The LXX suggest that the translators had a different Hebrew text before them under my skin my flesh is corrupted; my bones are held in (my) teeth.

[211] D. R. Blumenthal, Yetus Testamentum, 1966, pp. 497ff.

**Job 19:21**The repetition of have pity on me is a powerful rhetorical device. The hand of God has stricken me (same verb used in Isaiah 53:4).

**Job 19:22**His friends are here accused of imitating God by their ceaseless hounding of Job. They are inhuman. Job is their prey. The idiom means and will not stop calumniating me. How appropriate for our age which is preoccupied with the humanization of man, without the redemptive activity of God in the world.[212]

[212] Most contemporary views of redemption are politico-economic in nature, egs. Neo-Marxism, Liberation Theology, Eastern Meditationtechniques of all varieties, etc.

Job 19:23-27

5. And asserts his hope of a vindicator (go-’el) (Job 19:23-27)

TEXT 19:23-27

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 graven in the rock for ever!

25 But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And at last he will stand up upon the earth:

26 And after my skin, **even **this **body, **is destroyed,

Then without my flesh shall I see God;

27 Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me.**

COMMENT 19:23-27

**Job 19:23Job still holds out hope of the vision of God (Job 19:23-27). The foregoing appeal has fallen on deaf ears, as is apparent from the following speech. At the conclusion, job is completely alienated from: (1) family; (2) men, i.e., intimate friends; and apparently (3) God. Yet out of his depth of despair, he achieves a heightened faith in God which maintains that He will Shatter His Silence in the future. But for the existential moment, Job will endure this cosmic muteness. Note how his traditionalist friends have appealed to the wisdom of the past, how Job is enduring the present, and that only the future holds the solution to his dilemma.-’[213] If neither the past nor the present provide clues to the presence of God (i.e., a transcendent creator-redeemer God who is immanent in nature-history-social institutions-individual lives), where, if there are any, are the clues of God’s love and mercy? Since the first scientific revolution, western man has been moving in a naturalistic-humanistic direction. This process called for the death of God and the humanization of man. Oh, Job is our contemporary. Has God abandoned us? Job wants the protestation of his innocence to survive after his death in the form of a book or scroll.[214] Seper usually means book or scroll. But the verb here means to engrave. We now have the copper treasure scroll from Qumran; perhaps it is an illustration of what Job had in mind. He surely wanted his record to be permanent.

[213] Historical theology has progressed along these same lines: (1) Traditionalists depend on the past; (2) after Hegel and Kierkegaard, the emphasis was placed on the existential moment and leap of faith, and after the first collapse of Neo-orthodoxy (of Revolution-Liberation-Political Theory) influence, we move toward (3) Theology of Hope, egs. E. Block, J. Moltmann with the emphasis on the *future.

[214]* For possibilities of the form of materials implied, see G. R. Driver, Semitic Writing, 1954, p. 92; S. H. Gehman, JBL, 1944, pp. 3O3ff; Pope, Job, pp. 143-4.

**Job 19:24**A lead stylus could not make an impression on even the softest stone; therefore, the lead here must be to fill the incisions made by an iron tool. An ancient example of the use of lead in stone is Darius I’S Behistun Inscription.[215]

[215] For ancient evidence of this art, see K. Galling, Die Welt des Orients, 1954-59, p. 6; and J.J. Stamm, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamenttiche Wissenschaft, 1953, p. 302.

**Job 19:25**Here is the central verse of the entire book. Job knows that there is no immanent power within man or nature that can meet his needs. If death is the ultimate and absolute monarch of all life, then the late Heidegger is correctall of reality moves toward deathSein zum tode. The ultimate answer to evil, suffering, and death comes in this peak passageJob 19:25-27.[216] Despite the but, this verse must not be separated from the foregoing; i.e., these words in Job 19:23 are to be recorded in stone. The word go-’el (see Book of Ruth, Rth 4:4-6) means next of kin who was obligated to exact justice in a feudDeu 19:6-12; 2 Samuel 14:11; Leviticus 25:25; Leviticus 25:48. The go-’el is the defender of both widow and orphan and the enslavedPro 23:10-11. God is Israel’s go-’el or deliverer from Egyptian bondageExo 6:6; Exodus 15:13; exile, Jer. 1:34; dispersionIsa 43:1; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 48:20; and Isaiah 52:9. God also delivers the individual from deathPsa 103:4; Lamentations 3:58. Job’s concluding remarks in Job 19:26 b clearly reveal that his redeemer is God.[217] The word -aharon is here taken as adverbial at last. If it is taken as parallel to go-’el, it should be taken as adjectival in the sense that the first and last is guarantorIsa 44:6; Isaiah 48:12. His vindicator is living and will stand on the earth.[218] The Hebrew hayalive or livingis a designation for GodJos 3:10; Hosea 1:10. Job’s God is a living God. The much discussed Ugaritic example concerning Baal is upon scrutiny no parallel.[219] The Vulgate changes the Hebrew and reads I shall rise, meaning that Job shall experience resurrection. The phrase upon the earth literally reads upon the dust. Here is an expressed hope in God’s victory over Sheol.[220] Job’s answer comes by resurrection. Ultimately our Lord’s resurrection is not merely an historical event; it is a history-making eventMat 22:32. Death in Sheol never means extinction or annihilation, only existence that is less to be desired; as many claim, especially Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists (Soul Sleeping), Armstrongites, et. al.[221]

[216] See the brilliant and indispensable survey of the interpretation of this passage up to the 20th century by H. H. Rowley, From Moses to Qumran (New York: Association Press, 1963), pp. 180ff.

[217] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1971, p. 346.

[218] For extensive bibliographical survey of Faith, History, and Resurrection and references to the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts of Job 19:25-27, see my essays in James Orr, The Resurrection (College Press reprint, 1972); since the development of the Religionsgeschickte Schule, scholars have become preoccupied over the origin of the idea of resurrection. Bousset and Gressmann suggest a Persian source, so also W. Eichrodt, E. Jacob, and G. Von Rad in their respective Old Testament theologies.

[219] See E. G. Kraeling, The Book of The Ways of God (New York, 1939), p. 89; also Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton), p. 140.

[220] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1971, p. 346.

[221] See again N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death (Rome, 1969), esp. PP-32-34, 85-91.

**Job 19:26**The problems of translation and understanding are great in this verse. Dahood maintains that the expression in this verse sets forth the doctrine of the creation of a new body for the afterlife1 Corinthians 15. Job expects to see God, but not until after death. He does not say how he will be conscious of his vindication (compare with Job’s earlier wordsJob 14:21 ff). Here is one of the Old Testament highwater marks in the development of a belief in resurrection, which culminates in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. This fact is the very essence of the Christian faith. It is an objective fact which must be subjectively appropriated, resulting in a Christian world-life style of existence. It must be more than a legalistic doctrinal orthodoxy, but not less than orthodox. Jesus alone has revealed the true nature of Job’s GodJoh 1:18The Great Explanation. Job’s desire is to see (hazahsee a vision, a revelation) GodJob 42:5. He is certain of two things: (1) His Vindicator will vindicate his innocence; and (2) He will see his God.[222]

[222] See W. A. Irwin, Job’s Redeemer, JBL, 1962, pp. 217-229; R. Martin-Achard, De la mort a resurrection d-‘apres l-‘Ancien Testament (Neuchatel, 1956); C. R. North, The Redeemer God, Interpretation, 1948, pp. 3-16; and J. Lindblom, Ich weiss, dass mein Erloser lebt, Studia Theologica, 1940, pp. 65-77.

**Job 19:27**God will appear on Job’s behalf (Heb. on my side) and break His silence. Job will see Him for himself, not through someone else’s eyes. When he sees Him, He will appear as a friend, not as an enemy or stranger. Job is overcome with emotion (heartlit. my kidneys wear out in my bosom). In Hebrew psychology, the bowels and kidneys are regarded as the center of emotions, as was the heart of intelligence. It is wonderful, but not too wonderful to be possible.

Job 19:28-29

6. He warns his friends to cease their persecution. (Job 19:28-29)

TEXT 19:28, 29

**28 If ye say, How we will persecute him!

And that the root of the matter Is found in me;

29 Be ye afraid of the sword:

For wrath **bringeth **the punishments of the sword,

That ye may know there is a judgment.**

COMMENT 19:28, 29

**Job 19:28**The verse is another problem text. Job is probably charging his friends with prejudiceJob 6:14-30; Job 13:7-11; Job 17:4-5; and Job 19:1-5and persistent persecution, though the Hebrew text changes to indirect speech in him rather than direct discourse expressed in the A. V.‘S in me. Though the meaning is clear, it is one of the examples of grammatical confusion in the verse.

**Job 19:29**If you continue persecuting me, you will be judged by the sword (lit. because the iniquities of the sword are wrathIsa 31:8; Isaiah 34:5 ff). After Job’s great assertion in Job 19:25-27, he now lapses back into his not so obscure despair. In Babylonian literature, the sword is a symbol of Nergal, the god of war; perhaps the ideograph has Near Eastern application. Contemporary man is troubled over the very existence of God. Here Job adds to our anxiety by declaring that God will manifest objective wrath in the form of judgmentRom 1:18 ff.