Deeper Commentary
Job 19:1 Then Job answered- This speech sees Job bitterly lament
his treatment by God and the friends. Indeed everything was so unfair. But
out of all this deep self pity, he comes to the classic expression of his
faith in resurrection and judgment in :25-27. Taking any of his statements
alone would lead to the impression that he was almost narcissistic in his
self-pity, but it is out of this down cycle that is born the expression of
faith and yet deeper understanding of :25-27.
Job 19:2 How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?- If
nothing else we see here the power of words. The friends had come to
comfort, but ended up crushing him. Eliphaz had earlier concluded that Job
was "crushed" (s.w.) because of his sins (Job 5:4) and so he thought he
could crush Job with words as well. Even if Job had indeed been condemned,
his friends ought still to have sought to save him. Through this experience
he came to bear the "torment" which the exiles would during the Babylonian
invasion and captivity (s.w. Is. 51:23; Lam. 1:4).
Job 19:3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you
attack me- There have not yet been ten speeches by the friends. So
"ten times" is being used to mean 'totally' or 'many times', as in Gen.
31:41; Num. 14:22; Neh. 4:12; Dan. 1:20. We must understand that Semitic
languages don't use numbers always in the strictly literal sense which
European languages tend to. The friends were so sure that Job was
condemned that they lost all sense of shame and personal guilt in how they
treated him.
Job 19:4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself-
The aggression of the friends was because they thought they had the right
to join in the apparent Divine condemnation of him; rather than leaving
the matter between God and Job. This mentality is seen all around us
today. We note however that Job is still qualifying his sinfulness ["if it
is true..."]; and his final repentance reflects a total shedding of this
kind of careful self qualification.
Job 19:5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me- The
Messianic Psalms record David and the Lord Jesus feeling that their
enemies had magnified themselves against them (Ps. 35:26; 38:16; 41:9;
55:12). Ps. 41:9 applies the term to Judas, who was typified by the
friends as the Lord Jesus was by Job.
And plead against me my reproach- Pleading is legal language. Job had done nothing wrong to the friends, but he feels they had come into court to quote his "reproach" as evidence he had sinned, and therefore were demanding his judgment. When they should have left any possible sin as a matter between Job and God (:4).
Job 19:6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with His
net- "Subverted" translates a Hebrew word which clearly means to be
perverse or wicked with another person. Elihu sternly rebukes Job for this
statement, saying that God will not "pervert judgment" (Job
34:12). Again we marvel at the grace of how God later says that Job has
spoken what was right about Him (Job 42:7). Whilst that statement may
refer simply to Job's expression of total repentance, we would still
expect it to be qualified by some clause to the effect that "although
earlier Job accused me of many awful things". There is no such clause in
Job 42:7. The absence of it, bearing in mind Job's wrong statements about
God which Elihu has reminded us of, is surely noticeable and intended to
be noticed. We are left marvelling at the extent of grace and imputed
righteousness, through faith by grace.
Job 19:7 Behold, I cry out because of injustice, but I am not heard. I cry
for help, but there is no justice- Job now turns to lament how he
feels God has treated him, having complained of how the friends have
unjustly treated him. Job feels he has 'cried out' to God for justice and
not been heard (Job 19:7; 30:20); and that there is nothing wrong with
crying out to God in distress, it is a perfectly natural reaction (Job
24:12). One comment upon this is that the young ravens cry out to God for
food and yet are not always heard (Job 38:41 s.w.). But God in the wider
picture sustains all of creation by grace. Job did well to cry out to God
even if there was no answer, because the hypocrites do not 'cry out' to
God when they are facing judgment (Job 36:13 s.w.). Job feels hurt that
God has not responded to his 'crying out' because he says that when the
needy cried out to him, he had heard (Job 29:12 s.w.). But here we see his
works based approach; he thought that his response to those who cried out
to him meant that therefore God must respond to his crying out.
And God is not so primitive. His apparent silence is because His response
is not predicated upon human works and charity. It is by grace alone, as
is taught in His final appearance to Job. The exiles likewise were to
finally see the response to their crying out to God in the restoration
(Is. 58:9), just as their representative Jonah cried out to God from the
belly of sheol amidst the sea of nations, and was heard (s.w.
Jonah 2:2).
Job 19:8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness
in my paths- Job is feeling confined, imprisoned, blocked in. But this
was what happened to Judah in their judgment (Hos. 2:6); Job although
righteous was the representative of Judah. See on Job 10:11,12.
Num. 22:22 describes how an Angel of God stood in a narrow, walled path
before Balaam, so that his donkey fell down beneath him. That Angel is
described as a "satan", an adversary, to Balaam. Job comments how the
sufferings which the 'Satan' brought upon him were God 'walling up my way
that I cannot pass' (Job 19:8). The connection is clear- and surely
indicates that Job's satan was a satan-Angel, acting as an adversary to
Job just as such an Angel did to Balaam. See on Job 1:6. Job and Balaam
have certain similarities- both were prophets (in Job's case see Job 4:4;
23:12; 29:4 cp. 15:8; Amos 3:7; James 5:10,11); both had genuine
difficulty in understanding God's ways, but they to varying degrees
consciously rebelled against what they did understand; both thus became
angry with God (in the Angel), and were reproved by God through being
brought to consider the Angel-controlled natural creation.
Job 19:9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head-
"Stripped me" is s.w. "fell upon" in describing how the troops of Job's
enemies fell upon his children and wealth (Job 1:17). It was God who did
this, Job perceives; they were "His troops" (:12). The same word is used
of the stripping of God's people of their glory (Ez. 16:39; 23:26; Mic.
3:3), which only happened because they themselves did not strip themselves
of their clothing in repentance (s.w. Is. 32:11; Ez. 26:16). The
stripping of Job, which also recalls the stripping of the priest Aaron of
his clothes and "crown" [mitre] when his priesthood ended (Num. 20:26,28),
was therefore to elicit repentance in him. And this is what was finally
achieved at the end of the book. See on Job 40:10.
Job 19:10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope He
has plucked up like a tree- Originally, Job believed that his "hope"
was predicated upon his upright ways (Job 4:6). But Job through his
sufferings comes to feel he now has no "hope" (Job 7:6; 14:19; 17:15;
19:10). The friends suggest that Job had only the "hope" of the hypocrite,
and this "hope" would perish (Job 4:6; 8:13; 27:8). Job had integrity, and
on that basis he thought he had "hope". He suffered, and he lost that
"hope", because he assumed that his sufferings meant that he was not in
fact righteous. And yet he often reflects that he is righteous and is
suffering unjustly. And so he is led to the realization that the "hope" of
the righteous is by God's grace and not because of the "integrity of
[Job's] ways". Judah in captivity likewise lost their "hope" (Ez. 19:5;
37:11). But the message of the restoration prophets was that "there is
hope in your end" (Jer. 31:17); they were prisoners or exiles in
"hope" (Zech. 9:12). And we may get the possible whiff of restoration of
hope in Job; for now he compares himself to a tree plucked up, whereas in
Job 14:7-10 he has said that a tree has hope of sprouting again, but he
has no hope at all. Now, he at least sees himself as the tree. These were
baby steps towards faith in restoration.
Job 19:11 He has also kindled His wrath against me. He counts me among His
adversaries- Job feels God's wrath kindled against him (Job 19:11).
The innocent Job experienced the judgments of God's people, against
whom God's wrath was kindled (Dt. 11:17; 2 Kings 23:26). Significantly, we
find Elihu's wrath kindled against both Job and the friends (Job 32:2,3),
but the wrath of God was kindled only against the friends (Job 42:7).
Elihu is therefore not fully reflecting God's position about Job. I have
repeatedly demonstrated that the innocent Job was suffering the judgment
for the sins of God's people. In the end, this came to full term in the
salvation of the friends on account of Job's intercession. God's wrath was
not personally against Job, it was against the friends. But Job suffered
God's wrath against him, because he was to be the saviour of the friends
by offering sacrifice for them and praying for them. This looks forward to
the work of the Lord Jesus, the suffering servant based upon Job;
experiencing the judgment for our sins, and through the representative
nature of His sacrifice, being able to save us.
Job 19:12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and
encamp around my tent- See on :9. Job represents both the Lord Jesus Christ and Israel.
He was representative of both. This is nicely shown by how the language of
19:12-14 is reminiscent of the
descriptions of the Roman armies (Christ's armies- Mt. 22:7) surrounding
Jerusalem in AD70. There then follows a description of Job's sufferings
which has clear links with that of Christ's crucifixion in Ps. 69. "He
hath put my brethren far from me (cp. Ps. 69:8), and mine acquaintance are
verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends
have forgotten me". Note how the last phrase links with Christ's
description of Judas as "my own familiar friend", implying
there may be a connection between the one-time friends of Job, and Judas.
Both epitomized the Jewish system, and both were at one stage trusted by
Job/Jesus. Other descriptions of Job's sufferings in the language of Ps.
69 include Job 30:9 "Now am I their song, yea, I am their byword" (cp. Ps.
69:12); Job 22:11 "abundance of waters cover thee" (cp. Ps. 69:1,2); Job 2:11 the
friends came "to mourn with him and to comfort him", although Job said he
turned to them for comfort in vain (16:2). The Hebrew in Job 2:11 is identical
to that in Ps. 69:20, describing Christ looking in vain for comforters.
Job 19:13 He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly
estranged from me- The brothers of Job turned against him (:17)
because they all considered him "smitten of God" just as the suffering
servant was considered (Is. 53:4); the Lord Jesus likewise had this
experience, being initially rejected by his brothers (Jn. 7:5).
Job 19:14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten
me- This total rejection by everyone was indeed lamentable, but it
led to Job turning the more intensely toward God, despite the apparent
distance of God from him. And this apparently hopeless situation of being
rejected by all his family in Job 19:13-16 was reversed at the end when
all his relatives again came to him (Job 42:11). The way they give him a
piece of money and an earing appears to be some kind of gratitude for his
salvation of them. They thus recognized their guilt and expressed deep
gratitude that although they had rejected him, his sufferings and their
rejection of him had led to their salvation. For we can deduce from the
gift of a piece of money that they feel they have sinned, and he has saved
them. So again, his restoration was the restoration of others, the friends
and his family who had rejected him. He had born the sufferings for their
sins, and thus becomes a type of the Lord Jesus, who suffered the
judgments for sin in order to save those who had rejected and abused him.
Job 19:15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a
stranger. I am an alien in their sight- This is quoted in the
Messianic Ps. 69:18 concerning the Lord's sufferings on the cross.
Job 19:16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with
my mouth- The begging was for bread; see on Job 15:23. This is how
desperately low Job became. "Beg" is the word for 'grace'; see on :21.
Job 19:17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the
children of my own mother- "Loathsome" is not the best translation,
the Hebrew word is usually translated to be gracious to. Perhaps the idea
is that he asked his brothers for grace, but wasn't afforded it. The usage
of the word suggests Job for the first time is thinking about grace,
undeserved favour; and this is what he is led to realize at the end when
God appears. But this was one of the baby steps towards that. See on :21.
Job 19:18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against
me- Job was finally to be the saving hero of his society. Likewise
the exiles who had been despised were to be praised by all in the restored
Kingdom (Is. 41:9 s.w.). All because Job was the suffering servant,
despised and rejected of all and yet finally saviour of those who despised
him, just as the Lord Jesus to a far greater extent (Is. 53:3).
Job 19:19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned
against me- This abhorrence of Job by the friends is related to the way they
considered mankind to be "abominable and corrupt" (Job 15:16). "Abhor" is
the same word as "abominable". The simple truth is as Job put it- God has
a tender desire to man, the work of His hands (Job 14:15). And whatever we
posit about human nature, we say about the Lord Jesus. He fully shared
that nature and yet was holy, harmless and undefiled (Heb. 7:26). Man by
nature, just standing there as flesh and blood before God, is not
"abominable" to Him of himself. It is sin which is the problem; and sin is
not inevitable. We must bear full responsibility for our sins and cannot
just pass them off as an inevitable function of our humanity. The wrong
view of human nature held by the friends affected their view of Job and
people in practice. The lower our view of human nature, the more likely we
are to despise human beings rather than value them and speak well of them
because they are made in the image of God (James 3:9).
It must be noted that the satan never occurs again, under that name. The real adversary of Job was his "friends"; and in God's final judgment, it is they who are condemned, not 'satan'. It is therefore reasonable to see a connection between the satan and the 'friends' of Job; they too walked to and fro in the earth in order to come to him, as it seems satan did at the beginning. And we pause here for another lesson. The great satan / adversary of Job turned out to be those he thought were his friends in the ecclesia. And so it has been, time and again, in our experience: our sorest trials often come from the words of our brethren. Without underestimating the physical affliction of Job, his real adversary was his brethren. Rather than bemoaning his physical affliction, he commented how his friends had become his satans (Job 19:19) And so with the Lord Jesus, whom Job so accurately typified. Again, without minimizing the material agony of His flesh, the essential piercing was from His rejection at the hands of those He died for. For other reasons to connect the satan with the friends, see on Job 1:6.
Job 19:20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the
skin of my teeth- Job was just about hanging on to life, and so he
had the hope of restoration. This was the position of the exiles. From
their living death they would be given new skin and flesh in revival (Ez.
37:6,8) after the pattern of Job- if they wished to follow his example of
repentance.
Job 19:21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends- The word
for "grace" is used four times in quick succession (:16,17 and twice in
:21). Job is now appealing for grace, even if he is deemed guilty. Job for
the first time is thinking about grace, undeserved favour; and this is
what he is led to realize at the end when God appears.
For the hand of God has touched me- "Touch" is the word used by the satan in Job 1:11, showing again that the hand of the Satan was the hand of God, and Job understood this. The friends insist that "the destroyer" [by which they surely meant an early equivalent to 'the devil' of popular belief today] had touched Job- whereas Job insists that it is God who had destroyed him (Job 15:21 cp. 19:10; 13:21). In some ways the book of Job is a deconstruction of the popular Persian and Canaanite myths about a 'satan' figure. Job, both in the story of his sufferings and his specific words, seeks to demonstrate that the essential issues in life is being "just with God", and not whether or not we are touched by the hand of an evil being; for the hand of God which touched Job (Job 19:21) is the hand of 'satan' into whom God delivered Job temporarily (Job 1:12). Job says that the attitude of the friends is wrong- they should be looking into themselves, rather than fantasizing about the action of some unseen evil being they imagined: "Ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?... know that there is a [personal] judgment"(Job 19:28,29).
Job understood God to be in control in Heaven; he
rejects the idea of a cosmic conflict going on ‘up there’ which the
friends seem to allude to. More specifically, Job speaks of how God’s hand
forms and can pierce the “crooked serpent” and smite any monster (Job
26:11–14). It’s as if Job is mocking the idea that God has let him go into
the hands of the cosmic monsters which the friends believed in. For Job so
often stresses that it is the “hand of God” which has brought His
affliction (Job 19:21; 23:2). That Divine hand was far greater than any
mythical ‘Satan’ figure. The theme of his speech in Job 28 is that Yahweh
alone is to be feared throughout the entire cosmos. Nobody else – such as
the ‘Satan’ figures alluded to by the friends – needed to be feared.
Job 19:22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my
flesh?- The friends ended up playing God. They presumed to
judge Job according to their own limited and inaccurate theology, by
assuming that he must have sinned in order to receive such terrible trials
from God. Zophar claims to have revealed Job’s guilt, and then says that
“the heavens”- an ellipsis for “God”- have revealed Job’s guilt (Job
20:27). Job figured out what was happening when he complained to them:
“Why do you hound me as though you were divine?” (Job 19:22 NAB). But
something good came out of all this for Job. The way the friends played
God set up a kind of dialectic, from which Job came to perceive more
powerfully who God really was- and, moreover, how in fact this God would
ultimately save him rather than destroy and condemn him, as the friends
falsely thought. By ‘dialectic’ I mean that the way the friends presented
a false picture and manifestation of God’s judgment led Job to react
against it, and thereby come to a true understanding of God’s judgment.
Having stated his perception that the friends are indeed playing God (Job
19:22), Job goes straight on to make a solemn and important statement. The
solemnity of it is witnessed by his request that what he was now going to
say would be inscribed in rock with the point of a diamond as a permanent
record (Job 19:24). And that solemn statement was that he knew that God
would be his vindicator at the last day, that he would “see God”, that he
would have a bodily resurrection, and that at that time it would be the
friends who would be condemned (Job 19:25-29). This supreme statement of
faith, hope and understanding was elicited from Job because of the
rejection he suffered from his friends, and the way they so inaccurately
and wrongly played God in wrongly condemning him on God’s behalf. Job thus
came to long for the judgment seat. There are few believers who have
reached that level of intimacy with God- but Job did, thanks to the way
his friends so cruelly turned against him. And this is a major lesson we
can take from being the victim of slander, misunderstanding and
misjudgment by our own brethren.
Job 19:23 Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed
in a book!-
The existence of the book of Job is proof enough that his wish was
granted. His request, however, shows baby steps towards realizing that his
sufferings can be used for a greater and wider purpose. He was not just
suffering for himself. And finally his salvation of his friends and family
[possibly leading to the resurrection of his slain children] was realized
by him to be the outcome of this sufferings. He, the innocent, had born
their sins in his own body, just as the Lord did. Earlier he had offered
sacrifice for his children, but this was not enough; a representative
sufferer was needed. For now, he is only just beginning to move towards
this realization.
Job 19:24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock
forever!-
An "iron pen" is only found again in Jer. 17:1, where Judah's sin is
written with an iron pen. The desire for suffering to be remembered was
strong amongst the exiles as it was with Job.
Job 19:25 But as for me-
Given the context, the idea may be that whether or not his suffering
achieves anything for others, he is confident of his own salvation at the
end.
I know that my Redeemer lives- God was the redeemer of His people from slavery and captivity (Ex. 6:6; 15:13). Job felt his sufferings had placed him in some kind of slavery or captivity, from which he needed redemption or 'buying out'. And he believed that God was that redeemer. In these feelings, he becomes the exact representative of the suffering exiles in slavery and captivity. A redeemer from slavery was typically a close relative (Lev. 25:48; s.w. "kinsman" in Ruth 4:8), and this is how Job came to perceive the God whom he felt was so apparently silent and distant. He is a parade example of not being ultimately fazed by the apparent silence of God. The exiles were intended to rejoice that they had a redeemer, again, after the pattern of Job (Is. 41:14; 43:1,14; 44:6,22,23 etc.); and their redemption from Babylon was ultimately to be from death itself (Hos. 13:14).
In the end- AV "latter day" is wrong. There is no Hebrew equivalent here for the idea of a "day". The idea is simply, in the future.
He will stand upon the earth- "Earth" here is the word for dust. If the land or physical planet earth was in view, then eretz would probably have been used as it is elsewhere in Job. "Stand" doesn't have to imply resurrection; the idea is of being 'raised up', as the Messiah was to be raised up from amongst His brothers (Dt. 18:15; Jer. 23:5). Putting the ideas of the verse together, Job looked for a Messiah-Saviour figure similar to himself to be raised up in the future, who would be the living God manifested in human dust and ashes like Job's (Job 7:21; 17:16). The Lord Jesus was not God Himself nor did He personally pre-exist, but Job's idea is that this person was to be his representative, of his own dust, but raised up by the living God. His sufferings led him to long for someone exactly like the Lord Jesus- and that longing ultimately came true.
Job 19:26 After my skin is destroyed-
In Job 2:4–6 we have the ‘Satan’ commenting that Job’s flesh and skin need
to be harmed; but in Job 19:6,26 we have Job stating his faith that even
though God destroys his flesh and skin, yet
God shall ultimately save him. See on Job 16:14.
Job 19:27 whom I, even I, shall see for myself. My eyes shall see it, and
not a stranger’s. My heart is consumed within me- Whatever value
Job's sufferings may have had for others, Job was rejoicing in the
intensely personal nature of salvation. He whose eyes and body were fading
into death would in a corporeal form see God for himself. "And not a
stranger's" connects with what we noted on :23; Job had begun to realize
that his sufferings were for others' benefit, even though he didn't know
who, they were still strangers to him. His point is that notwithstanding
that, he was now beginning to grasp the utter wonder of his personal
salvation.
As Job's emphasis on the coming of Messiah and judgment increased, so
his concentration on his present sufferings decreased. His heart was
consumed within him with desire for that day. 2 Tim. 4 can
be regarded as Paul's most mature spiritual statement, written as it was
just prior to his death. In 2 Tim. 4:1,8, Paul's mind was clearly on the
second coming and the certainty of judgment. He realized, in that time of
undoubted maturity, that the common characteristic of all the faithful
would be that they all loved the appearing of Christ. But do we love the appearing of Christ as Job did? Is it really all we have in life? Is our conscience, our faith in the grace of God, our real belief in the blood of the cross, so deep that we love the idea of the coming of judgment, that we would fain hasten the day of His coming? Job's love of the Lord's coming grew very rapidly. Before, he was too caught up with bitterness about his unspiritual fellow 'believers', effectively justifying himself in the eyes of his ecclesia and his world, full of passive complaints about his own sufferings... and so he didn't love that day as he later came to. You and
I personally will be in God’s Kingdom, with our arms around
each other in the rubble of Jerusalem. We will personally be there. We
will see Abraham there (Lk. 13:28); as Job says, with our own eyes we will
behold our Lord, and not through anyone else’s eyes (Job 19:27). Our eyes
shall behold the King in the beauty which we personally perceive in Him
(Is. 33:17).
Job 19:28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’; because the root of
the matter is found in me- Having begun by complaining about the
friends and then moved to rejoicing in God's future salvation of him, Job
now returns to address the friends. Here and in :29 he appeals for them
not to judge him but to repent and prepare for judgment day. This is not
at all out of context with the passionate rejoicing in personal salvation
he has just expressed in :25-27. The connection is in that he desperately
wanted the friends to be there too, to share his wonderful hope. But
whilst they continued condemning him, they would unlikely be there; for
God has always operated the principle that those who judge / condemn will
themselves be condemned (Mt. 7:1), and that is just what they were doing.
And Job wants them to stop that and be saved. The situation arose because
they considered that Job was totally at fault, and they were intended to
persecute him on God's behalf. If they had realized that we are not to
judge in the sense of condemning, and left the possible sins between God
and Job (see on :4), then they would not have worked themselves into the
situation they were now in- thinking it was their duty to persecute Job.
This is one of several passages where Job speaks as if the friends were
responsible for his physical persecution (cp.:22); as if they had brought
the calamity which the opening chapters make satan responsible for. See on
Job 1:6, and note how the satan figure morphs into the friends as the book
continues.
Job 19:29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the
sword, that you may know there is a judgment- I suggest that this
expresses a deep concern in Job for the final salvation of the friends;
see on :28. He urges them to be aware that the wrath they have could lead
to their own punishment by the Divine sword of judgment. And he wants them
to realize "there is a judgment". His basic desire to save them is
rewarded. God does appear in judgment and condemn the friends, and asks
Job to save them by his prayers and sacrifices for them.
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