Job 19:1–29 Job's Poignant Reply to Bildad

 ¹Then Job answered and said:

²“How long will you torment my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

³These ten times you have reproached me;

You are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

⁴And if indeed I have erred,

My error remains with me.

⁵If indeed you exalt yourselves against me,

And plead my disgrace against me,

⁶Know then that God has wronged me,

And has surrounded me with His net.

⁷“If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard.

If I cry aloud, there is no justice.

⁸He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass;

And He has set darkness in my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my glory,

And taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He breaks me down on every side,

And I am gone;

My hope He has uprooted like a tree.

¹¹He has also kindled His wrath against me,

And He counts me as one of His enemies.

¹²His troops come together

And build up their road against me;

They encamp all around my tent.

¹³“He has removed my brothers far from me,

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have failed,

And my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants,

Count me as a stranger;

I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call my servant, but he gives no answer;

I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife,

And I am repulsive to the children of my own body.

¹⁸Even young children despise me;

I arise, and they speak against me.

¹⁹All my close friends abhor me,

And those whom I love have turned against me.

²⁰My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,

And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹“Have pity on me, have pity on me,

O you my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me!

²²Why do you persecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³“Oh, that my words were written!

Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That they were engraved on a rock

With an iron pen and lead, forever!

²⁵For I know that my Redeemer lives,

And He shall stand at last on the earth;

²⁶And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,

That in my flesh I shall see God,

²⁷Whom I shall see for myself,

And my eyes shall behold, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

²⁸If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’—

Since the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹Be afraid of the sword for yourselves;

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

That you may know there is a judgment.”

Commentary

Vs. 1-6 ¹Then Job answered and said:

²“How long will you torment my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

³These ten times you have reproached me;

You are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

⁴And if indeed I have erred,

My error remains with me.

⁵If indeed you exalt yourselves against me,

And plead my disgrace against me,

⁶Know then that God has wronged me,

And has surrounded me with His net.

Job now pleads with his friends for some compassion (vs. 1-2), telling them that by they’re words they have only been unashamedly wronging him (vs. 3). Job then says that if he has erred then his error remains with him (vs. 4); that is his broken state of being; thus, they don’t need to slam him down to ground with their words exalting themselves against him and pleading his disgrace against him (vs. 5); For Job once again asserts that it is God who has wronged him, who has surrounded him with His net (vs. 6). By doing so then God Almighty is now charged by Job as the source of all his troubles, and yet it is God Almighty alone who is the solution to his grave dilemma. Job then in casting off restraint (10:1-2; 13:15 etc.) has now taken a turn for the worse.

Vs. 7 “If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard.

If I cry aloud, there is no justice.”

Job now decrees that he is not being heard by God, that even when he cries aloud there is no justice. Job is not alone in this, for we too often feel that God is slow to respond to our cries for justice (nonetheless consider Luke 18:1-8), for we always want our justice delivered to us here and now on our terms, and yet if we were given it by God here and now and on our terms would we really want it? For we too are not innocent, and in Job’s case his blamelessness is leaving him quicker than he thinks.

Vs. 8-12 ⁸He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass;

And He has set darkness in my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my glory,

And taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He breaks me down on every side,

And I am gone;

My hope He has uprooted like a tree.

¹¹He has also kindled His wrath against me,

And He counts me as one of His enemies.

¹²His troops come together

And build up their road against me;

They encamp all around my tent.

Job continues to lay the blame for his troubles squarely on God, saying that God has fenced him in so that he cannot escape, that He has even set darkness in his paths so that Job cannot find his way out (vs 8). Job then charges God with stripping him of his glory and taking the crown from his head (vs. 9), he then goes on to accuse God of breaking him down on every side, and I am gone, says Job (vs. 10). Verse eleven is one of those verses that just makes you cringe, for if God had set His wrath against Job rest assured it would be decisive, instead it is God who is restraining Satan from completely destroying him, and yet Job now thinks that God counts him as one of His enemies. Job then reimagines this as God calling together and then sending His troops against him, of they’re camping all around his tent waiting to destroy him (vs. 12). Now do any of these things that Job has spoken here even remotely resonate with the works of God in our lives, I think not! But that is that tragedy in ones life can do totally confuse ones perspective of God's dealings with oneself in ones life, at least initially, as has happened to Job. Nonetheless Job's venting his feelings like this is needed before he sees himself and what he has been saying in the light of God of God's truth. He goes on saying....

 Vs. 13-20 ¹³“He has removed my brothers far from me,

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have failed,

And my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants,

Count me as a stranger;

I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call my servant, but he gives no answer;

I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife,

And I am repulsive to the children of my own body.

¹⁸Even young children despise me;

I arise, and they speak against me.

¹⁹All my close friends abhor me,

And those whom I love have turned against me.

²⁰My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,

And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Job words here are so despairing, so heart breaking to hear him speak like this, and to see such a righteous man now falsely accused and treated like that. But that is what people often do, (especially religious people), when unexplained tragedy befalls someone. And so what his family and greater community are doing to him is just a reflection of his friends beliefs held by them all. Sadly though Job lays the blame for all of this happening to him on God. For He now charges God with removing loved ones and friends far away from him, he even blames God for they’re abandoning him (vs. 13). Job’s relatives though have failed him, and his close friends have forgotten him (vs. 14); this though is not God’s doing, but it is they’re own doing towards Job, according to they’re own terribly misguided understandings of God’s dealings with him. Even those in Job’s own household, who once tended to him, who were even nourished by him, now treat Job like a leper, like someone they never even knew, for they refuse to acknowledge him when he calls to them, even if he begs them, they still will not come to him (vs. 15-16). And Job’s wife who should be supporting him in all of this now refuses him all close personal contact, all intimacy, while his children who came from him only see him only as repulsive (vs. 17). For they make it clear to him that they want nothing to do with him. And when Job goes outside to find some relief even the young children who see him openly despise him, and when he arises to leave then they speak against him (vs. 18). Job goes on to say that his close friends now abhor him and that those whom he loves have also turned against him (vs. 19). The rejection that Job faces both at home and in his own community is unbelievable, how could people people be so callous and cold? which again maybe one of the reasons why God is allowing Job to suffer such things, to expose all their wrong ways as well. Job finalizes his plight by saying that his skin now clings to his bones and that he has only escaped death by the skin of his teeth (vs. 20).

Vs. 21-22 ²¹“Have pity on me, have pity on me,

O you my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me!

²²Why do you persecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job in complete desperation now pleads with his friends to have pity on him, even saying to them that the hand of God has struck him as they believe He has in trying to get some compassion from them; now the difference being is that they think God has done it as an act of justice against him, while Job thinks He has done it out of some kind of mistaken error. I’m reiterating this here because if they abandon him like everybody else has in his community, Job believes he has nowhere else to go. Now in doing this Job once again gravely errors by charging God with striking him, (just as everyone around him believes He has and asserts against him). Job then asks his friends why they persecute him like God does, why aren’t they satisfied with seeing him suffer such things, rather than add to his sufferings with their words, accusations and denunciations? For if this is an act of justice from God on Job then be content with what you see happening to me rather then add to my affliction is Job's point. Job’s perception then of God’s works in his life at this point is only way off; and this we can only attribute to his sufferings; for as we know, or should know, God persecutes and wrongs no one.

Vs. 23-24 ²³“Oh, that my words were written!

Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That they were engraved on a rock

With an iron pen and lead, forever!

If Job could’ve only known then that his words would be preserved, that God Himself was keeping them all, preserving them for us all, so that He could use them for many generations to instruct and inform many. Therefore know this if God allows tragedy and suffering in one’s life, He always has a greater purpose, a purpose that we must find and use for the betterment of others. And in the end Job will find it, when he intercedes for his friends, who like himself, will also never be the same again.

 Vs. 25-27 ²⁵For I know that my Redeemer lives,

And He shall stand at last on the earth;

²⁶And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,

That in my flesh I shall see God,

²⁷Whom I shall see for myself,

And my eyes shall behold, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

And yet 0ut of the depths of Job's despair his faith now rises to its greatest heights. These then are the pivotal verses in all of Job’s discourses for in them we see a personal genuine faith that his friends do not exemplify. Notice Job calls God His Redeemer, notice too that His God (our God) is a living God, whom Job rightly foresees as one day standing on the earth; (correcting every wrong and making straight everything that mankind has made crocked). Job then is foreseeing the Coming of Christ (vs. 25), which then makes this one of earliest prophecies about Him. Job goes on in faith knowing that even when his body is destroyed, that in his flesh he shall see God, Job then is also foreseeing the resurrection of the dead (vs. 26), but not in the context of Judgment, but rather in the Redemption of his person, and so Job’s heart now longs for that Day, the Day when He gets to meet His Lord and Savior face to face (vs. 27). Job then is covering a lot of ground in a few verses, but it is verses like this that make the Book of Job worth reading and studying. For the Book of Job is very edifying, you just have to know where to look, and see and understand everything in its greater context (kind of like our lives).

Vs. 28-29 ²⁸If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’—

Since the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹Be afraid of the sword for yourselves;

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

That you may know there is a judgment.”

With his great and profound declaration of faith, Job now begins to turn the page (or close the book) on all his previous desires for death and only being surrounded by darkness etc. Here then we begin to see Job no longer on the defensive, but now growing in confidence. Therefore Job now warns his friends that they themselves are not immune to what has happened to him, that they should not think that they can now speak to him and treat him however disdainfully they like. For his Redeemer is watching them as well as him and he is weighing them all. Therefore, the God of Justice, whose Judgment they have been so forcefully declaring on Job, likewise has a Judgment for them, is now Jobs warning to them.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.