2 Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words? 3 These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me— 4 And also—truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain. 5 If, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach; 6 Know now, that God turned me upside down, And His net against me hath set round, 7 Lo, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
8 My way He hedged up, and I pass not over, And on my paths darkness He placeth. 9 Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head. 10 He breaketh me down round about, and I go, And removeth like a tree my hope. 11 And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries. 12 Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent. 13 My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me. 14 Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me, 15 Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes. 16 To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him. 17 My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my 'mother's' womb. 18 Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me. 19 Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me. 20 To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth. 21 Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me. 22 Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?
23 Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven? 24 With a pen of iron and lead—For ever in a rock they may be hewn. 25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise. 26 And after my skin hath compassed this 'body', Then from my flesh I see God: 27 Whom I—I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.
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.