2 "How long will you torment me And crush me with words ? 3 "These ten times you have insulted me; You are not ashamed to wrong me. 4 "Even if I have truly erred , My error lodges with me. 5 "If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me And prove my disgrace to me, 6 Know then that God has wronged me And has closed His net around me. 7 "Behold , I cry , 'Violence !' but I get no answer ; I shout for help , but there is no justice .
8 "He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass , And He has put darkness on my paths . 9 "He has stripped my honor from me And removed the crown from my head . 10 "He breaks me down on every side , and I am gone ; And He has uprooted my hope like a tree . 11 "He has also kindled His anger against me And considered me as His enemy . 12 "His troops come together , And build up their way against me And camp around my tent . 13 "He has removed my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. 14 "My relatives have failed , And my intimate friends have forgotten me. 15 "Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger . I am a foreigner in their sight . 16 "I call to my servant , but he does not answer ; I have to implore him with my mouth . 17 "My breath is offensive to my wife , And I am loathsome to my own brothers e . 18 "Even young children despise me; I rise up and they speak against me. 19 "All my associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me. 20 "My bone clings to my skin and my flesh , And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth . 21 "Pity me, pity me, O you my friends , For the hand of God has struck me. 22 "Why do you persecute me as God does, And are not satisfied with my flesh ?
23 "Oh e that my words were written ! Oh e that they were inscribed in a book ! 24 "That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever ! 25 "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives , And at the last He will take His stand on the earth . 26 "Even after my skin is destroyed , Yet from my flesh I shall see God ; 27 Whom I myself shall behold , And whom my eyes will see and not another . My heart faints 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.