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! 28 "If you say , 'How shall we persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find ?' 29 "Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, For wrath brings the punishment of the sword , So that you may know there is judgment ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 19:23-29
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.