2 How long will ye vex my soul, and crush me with words? 3 These ten times have ye reproached me; ye are not ashamed to stupefy me. 4 And be it [that] I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. 5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and prove against me my reproach, 6 Know now that +God hath overthrown me, and hath surrounded me with his net. 7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, and I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
8 He hath hedged up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. 9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He breaketh me down on every side, and I am gone; and my hope hath he torn up as a tree. 11 And he hath kindled his anger against me, and hath counted me unto him as one of his enemies. 12 His troops have come together and cast up their way against me, and have encamped round about my tent. 13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are quite estranged from me. 14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my known friends have forgotten me. 15 The sojourners in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. 16 I called my servant, and he answered not; I entreated him with my mouth. 17 My breath is strange to my wife, and my entreaties to the children of my [mother's] womb. 18 Even young children despise me; I rise up, and they speak against me. 19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and they whom I loved are turned against me. 20 My bones cleave 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, ye my friends; for the hand of +God hath touched me. 22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh would that my words were written! oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24 That with an iron style and lead they were graven in the rock for ever! 25 And [as for] me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and the Last, he shall stand upon the earth; 26 And [if] after my skin this shall be destroyed, yet from out of my flesh shall I see +God; 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another:—my reins are consumed within me.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 19:2-27
Commentary on Job 19:1-7
(Read Job 19:1-7)
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.
Commentary on Job 19:8-22
(Read Job 19:8-22)
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.
Commentary on Job 19:23-29
(Read Job 19:23-29)
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.