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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Job 19 Pulpit Commentary</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/job/19.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/job/19-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">Pulpit Commentary</a> > Job 19</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../job/18.htm" title="Job 18">◄</a> Job 19 <a href="../job/20.htm" title="Job 20">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Pulpit Commentary</div><div class="chap"><div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-1.htm">Job 19:1</a></div><div class="verse">Then Job answered and said,</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 1-29.</span> - Job begins his answer to Bildad's second speech by an expostulation against the unkindness of his friends, who break him in pieces, and torture him, with their reproaches (vers. 1-5). He then once more, and more plainly than on any other occasion, recounts his woes. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="note_emph">(1)</span> His severe treatment by God (vers. 6-13); <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="note_emph">(2)</span> his harsh usage by his relatives and friends (vers. 14-19): and <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="note_emph">(3)</span> the pain caused him by his disease (ver. 20); and appeals to his friends on these grounds for pity and forbearance (vers. 21, 22). Next, he proceeds to make his great avowal, prefacing it with a wish for its preservation as a perpetual record (vers. 23, 24); the avowal itself follows (vers. 25-27); and the speech terminates with a warning to his "comforters," that if they continue to persecute him, a judgment will fall upon them (vers. 28, 29). <span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 1, 2.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?</span> Job is no Stoic. He is not insensible to his friends' attacks. On the contrary, their words sting him, torture him, "break him in pieces," wound his soul in its tenderest part. Bildad's attack had been the cruellest of all, and it drives him to expostulation (vers. 2-5) and entreaty (vers. 21, 22). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-2.htm">Job 19:2</a></div><div class="verse">How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?</div><div class="comm"></div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-3.htm">Job 19:3</a></div><div class="verse">These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed <i>that</i> ye make yourselves strange to me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 3.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">These ten times have ye reproached me</span>. (For the use of the expression "ten times" for "many times." "frequently." see <a href="/genesis/31-7.htm">Genesis 31:7, 41</a>; <a href="/numbers/14-22.htm">Numbers 14:22</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/4-12.htm">Nehemiah 4:12</a>; <a href="/daniel/1-20.htm">Daniel 1:20</a>, etc.) <span class="cmt_word">Ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me</span>; rather, <span class="accented">that ye deal hardly with me</span> (see the Revised Version). The verb used does not occur elsewhere, but seems to have the meaning of "ill use" or "ill treat" (see Professor Lee's "Commentary on the Book of Job" p. 328). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-4.htm">Job 19:4</a></div><div class="verse">And be it indeed <i>that</i> I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 4.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">And be it indeed that I have erred; or, done wrong</span>. Job at no time maintains his impeccability. Sins of infirmity he frequently pleads guilty to, and specially to intemperate speech (see <a href="/job/6-26.htm">Job 6:26</a>; <a href="/job/9-14.htm">Job 9:14, 20</a>, etc.). <span class="cmt_word">Mine error remaineth with myself</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> "it remains mine; and I suffer the punishment." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-5.htm">Job 19:5</a></div><div class="verse">If indeed ye will magnify <i>yourselves</i> against me, and plead against me my reproach:</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 5.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me</span>. If you have no sense of justice, and are disinclined to pay any heed to my expostulations; if you intend still to insist on magnifying yourselves against me, and bringing up against me my "reproach;" then let me make appeal to your pity. Consider my whole condition - how I stand with God, who persecutes me and "destroys" me (ver. 10); how I stand with my relatives and such other friends as I have beside yourselves, who disclaim and forsake me (vers. 13-19); and how I am conditioned with respect to my body, emaciated and on the verge of death (ver. 20); and then, if neither your friendship nor your sense of justice will induce you to abstain from persecuting me, abstain at any rate for pity's sake (ver. 21). <span class="cmt_word">And plead against me my reproach</span>. Job's special "reproach" was that God had laid his hand upon him. This was a manifest fact, and could not be denied. His "comforters" concluded from it that he was a monster of wickedness. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-6.htm">Job 19:6</a></div><div class="verse">Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 6.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Know now that God hath overthrown me</span>; or, perverted me - "subverted me in my cause" (see <a href="/lamentations/3-6.htm">Lamentations 3:6</a>). <span class="cmt_word">And hath compassed me with his net</span>. Professor Lee thinks that the net, or rather noose, intended by the rare word <span class="hebrew">מצוּד</span> is the <span class="accented">lasso</span>' which was certainly employed in war (Herod., 7:85), and probably also in hunting, from ancient times in the East. Bildad had insinuated that Job had fallen into his own snare (<a href="/job/18-7.htm">Job 18:7-9</a>); Job replies that the snare in which he is taken is from God. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-7.htm">Job 19:7</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but <i>there is</i> no judgment.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 7.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Behold, I cry out of wrong</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> "I cry out that I am wronged." I complain that sufferings are inflicted on me that I have not deserved. This has been Job's complaint from the first (<a href="/job/3-26.htm">Job 3:26</a>; <a href="/job/6-29.htm">Job 6:29</a>; <a href="/job/9-17.htm">Job 9:17, 22</a>; <a href="/job/10-3.htm">Job 10:3</a>, etc.). But I am not heard; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> "I am not listened to - my cry is not answered." I cry aloud, but there is no judgment; or, no <span class="accented">decision-</span> "no sentence." All Job's appeals to God have elicited no reply from him. He still keeps silence. Job appears from the first to have anticipated such a theophany as ultimately takes place (ch. 38-41.) and vindicates his character. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-8.htm">Job 19:8</a></div><div class="verse">He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 8.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass</span> (comp. <a href="/job/3-25.htm">Job 3:25</a>; <a href="/job/13-27.htm">Job 13:27</a>; <a href="/hosea/2-6.htm">Hosea 2:6</a>), and he hath set darkness in my paths. Job complains of the want of light; in his heart he cries, <span class="greek">Ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον</span>. Nothing vexes him so much as his inability to understand why he is afflicted. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-9.htm">Job 19:9</a></div><div class="verse">He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown <i>from</i> my head.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 9.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath stripped me of my glory</span>. The glory which he had in his prosperity; not exactly that of a king, but that of a great sheikh or emir - of one who was on a par with the noblest of those about him (see <a href="/job/1-3.htm">Job 1:3</a>). <span class="cmt_word">And taken the crown from my head</span>. Not an actual crown, which sheikhs do not wear, but a metaphor for dignity or honour. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-10.htm">Job 19:10</a></div><div class="verse">He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 10.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone</span>; or, <span class="accented">broken me down.</span> Job compares himself to a city, the walls of which are attacked on every side and broken down. His ruin is complete - he perishes. <span class="cmt_word">And mine hope hath he removed like a tree</span>; rather, <span class="accented">torn up like a tree.</span> Job's "hope" was, no doubt, to lead a tranquil and a godly life, surrounded by his relatives and friends, in favour with God and man, till old age came, and he descended, like a ripe shock of corn (<a href="/job/5-26.htm">Job 5:26</a>), to the grave. This hope had been "torn up by the roots" when his calamities fell upon him. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-11.htm">Job 19:11</a></div><div class="verse">He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as <i>one of</i> his enemies.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 11.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath also kindled his wrath against me</span>. It is not what has happened to him in the way of affliction and calamity that so much oppresses and crushes the patriarch, as the <span class="accented">cause to</span> which he, not unnaturally, ascribes his afflictions, vie. the wrath of God. Participating in the general creed of his time, he believes his sufferings to come direct from God, and to be proofs of God's severe anger against him. He is not, however, prepared on this account to renounce God. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (<a href="/job/13-15.htm">Job 13:15</a>) is still his inward sustaining thought and guiding principle. <span class="cmt_word">And he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies</span>. Job felt himself treated as an enemy of God, and supposed that God must consider him such. He either had no glimpse of the cheering truth, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" (<a href="/hebrews/12-6.htm">Hebrews 12:6</a>), or he could not imagine that such woes as his were mere chastenings. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-12.htm">Job 19:12</a></div><div class="verse">His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 12.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">His troops come together</span> (comp. <a href="/job/16-13.htm">Job 16:13</a>, "His archers compass me round about"). It seems to Job that God brings against him a whole army of assailants, who join their forces together and proceed to the attack. Clouds of archers, troops of ravagers, come about him, and fall upon him from every side. <span class="cmt_word">And raise up their way against me</span>; rather, <span class="accented">and cast up their bank against</span> me. Job still regards himself as a besieged city (see ver. 10), and represents his assailants as raising embankments to hem him in, or mounds from which to batter his defences (compare the Assyrian sculptures, <span class="accented">passim</span>)<span class="accented">. <span class="cmt_word"></span>And encamp round about my tabernacle</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> "my tent," or "my dwelling." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-13.htm">Job 19:13</a></div><div class="verse">He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 13.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath put my brethren far from me</span>. Job had actual "brothers" (<a href="/job/42-11.htm">Job 42:11</a>), who forsook him and "dealt deceitfully" with him (<a href="/job/6-15.htm">Job 6:15</a>) during the time of his adversity, but were glad enough to return to him and "eat bread with him" in his later prosperous life. Their alienation from him during the period of his afflictions he here regards as among the trials laid upon him by God. Compare the similar woe of Job's great Antitype (<a href="/john/5-5.htm">John 5:5</a>, "For neither did his brethren believe on him"). <span class="cmt_word">And mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me</span> (comp. <a href="/psalms/38-11.htm">Psalm 38:11</a>; <a href="/psalms/69-9.htm">Psalm 69:9</a>; <a href="/psalms/88-8.htm">Psalm 88:8, 18</a>). The desertion of the afflicted by their fair-weather friends is a standing topic with the poets and moralists of all ages and nations. Job was not singular in this affliction. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-14.htm">Job 19:14</a></div><div class="verse">My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 14.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me</span> (see <a href="/psalms/41-9.htm">Psalm 41:9</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-15.htm">Job 19:15</a></div><div class="verse">They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 15.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger.</span> Even the inmates of his house, male and female, his servants, guards, retainers, handmaids, and the like, looked on him and treated him as if unknown to them. l am an alien in their sight. Nay, not only as if unknown, but "as an alien," <span class="accented">i.e.</span> a foreigner. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-16.htm">Job 19:16</a></div><div class="verse">I called my servant, and he gave <i>me</i> no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 16.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">I called my servant, and he gave me no answer</span>. Astounding insolence in an Oriental servant or rather <span class="accented">slave</span> (<span class="hebrew">עבד</span>), who should have hung upon his master's words, and striven to anticipate his wishes. I intreated him with my mouth. Begging him probably for some service which was distasteful, and which he declined to render. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-17.htm">Job 19:17</a></div><div class="verse">My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's <i>sake</i> of mine own body.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 17.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">My breath is strange to my wife</span>. The breath of a sufferer from elephantiasis has often a fetid odour which is extremely disagreeable. Job's wife, it would seem, held aloof from him on this account, so that he lost the tender offices which a wife is the fittest person to render. <span class="cmt_word">Though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.</span> This translation is scarcely tenable, though no doubt it gives to the words used a most touching and pathetic sense. Translate, <span class="accented">and I am loathsome to the children of my mother's wench</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> to my brothers and sisters (comp. <a href="/job/42-11.htm">Job 42:11</a>). It would seem that they also avoided Job's presence, or at any rate any near approach to him. Under the circumstances, this is perhaps not surprising; but Job, in his extreme isolation, felt it keenly. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-18.htm">Job 19:18</a></div><div class="verse">Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 18.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Yea, young children despised me</span>. (So Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, and the Revised Version.) Others translate, "the vile," or "the perverse" (comp. <a href="/job/16-11.htm">Job 16:11</a>). But the rendering of the Authorized Version receives support from <a href="/job/21-11.htm">Job 21:11</a>. The forwardness of rude and ill-trained children to take part against God's saints appears later in the history of Elisha (<a href="/2_kings/2-23.htm">2 Kings 2:23, 24</a>). I arose, and they spake against me; or, <span class="accented">when</span> I <span class="accented">arise</span> <span class="accented">they speak against me</span> (compare. the Revised Version). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-19.htm">Job 19:19</a></div><div class="verse">All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 19.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">All my inward friends abhorred me</span>; literally, <span class="accented">all the men of my counsel</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> all those whom I was accustomed to consult, and whose advice I was wont to take, in any difficulty, by keeping aloof, have shown their abhorrence of me. <span class="cmt_word">And they whom I loved are turned against me</span> (comp. <a href="/psalms/41-9.htm">Psalm 41:9</a>; <a href="/psalms/55-12.htm">Psalm 55:12-14</a>: <a href="/jeremiah/20-10.htm">Jeremiah 20:10</a>). The saints of God in all ages, and however differently circumstanced, are assailed by almost the same trials and temptations. Whether it be Job, or David, or Jeremiah, or One greater than any of them, the desertion and unkindness of their nearest and dearest, as the bitterest of all sufferings, is almost sure to be included in their cup, which they must drink to the dregs, if they are to experience to the full "the precious uses of adversity." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-20.htm">Job 19:20</a></div><div class="verse">My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 20.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh</span>. Here the third source of Job's misery is brought forward - his painful and incurable disease. This has brought him to such a pitch of emaciation that his bones seem to adhere to the tightened skin, and the scanty and shrunken muscles, that cover them (comp. <a href="/job/33-21.htm">Job 33:21</a> and <a href="/lamentations/4-8.htm">Lamentations 4:8</a>). Such emaciation of the general frame is quite compatible with the unsightly swelling of certain parts of the body which characterizes elephantiasis<span class="cmt_word">. And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth</span>. The expression is, no doubt, proverbial, and signifies "barely escaped;" but its origin is obscure. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-21.htm">Job 19:21</a></div><div class="verse">Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 21.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my friends</span>. On the enumeration of his various woes, Job's appeal for pity follows. We must not regard it as addressed merely to the three so-called "friends" (<a href="/job/2-11.htm">Job 2:11</a>) or "comforters" (<a href="/job/16-2.htm">Job 16:2</a>), Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. It is an appeal to all those who are around him and about him, whose sympathies have been bither to estranged (vers. 13-19), but whose regard he does not despair of winning back. Will they not, when they perceive the extremity and variety of his sufferings, be moved to compassion by them, and commiserate him in his day of calamity? <span class="cmt_word">For the hand of God hath touched me</span>. To the "comforters" this is no argument. They deem him unworthy of pity on the very ground that he is "smitten of God, and afflicted" (<a href="/isaiah/53-4.htm">Isaiah 53:4</a>); since they hold that, being so smitten, he must have' deserved his calamity. But to unprejudiced persons, not wedded to a theory, such an aggravation of his woe would naturally seem to render him a greater object of pity and compassion. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-22.htm">Job 19:22</a></div><div class="verse">Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 22.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Why do ye persecute me as God?</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> Why are ye as hard on me as God himself? If I have offended him, what have I done to offend you? <span class="cmt_word">And are not satisfied with my flesh?</span> <span class="accented">i.e</span>. "devour my flesh, like wild beasts, and yet are not satisfied." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-23.htm">Job 19:23</a></div><div class="verse">Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 23.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Oh that my words were written!</span> It is questioned what words of his Job is so anxious to have committed to writing - those that precede the expression of the wish, or those that follow, or both. As there is nothing that is very remarkable in the preceding words, whereas the latter are among the most striking in the book, the general opinion has been that he refers to these last. It is now universally allowed, even by those whose date for Job is the most remote, that books were common long before his time, and so that he might naturally have been familiar with them. Writing is, of course, even anterior to books, and was certainly in use before <span class="date">B.C. 2000</span>. The earliest writing was probably on stone or brick, and was perhaps in every case hieroglyphical. When writing on papyrus, or parchment, or the bark of trees, came into use, a cursive character soon superseded the hieroglyphical, though the latter continued In be employed for religious purposes, and for inscriptions on stone. <span class="cmt_word">Oh that they were printed in a book!</span> rather, <span class="accented">inscribed</span>, or <span class="accented">engraved.</span> The impression of the characters below the surface of the writing material, as in the Babylonian and Assyrian clay-tablets, seems to be pointed at. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-24.htm">Job 19:24</a></div><div class="verse">That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 24.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!</span> A peculiar kind of rock-inscription, of which, so far as I know, no specimens remain, appears to be here alluded to. Job wished the characters of his record to be cut deep into the rock with an iron chisel, and the incision made to be then filled up with lead (compare the mediaeval "brasses"). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-25.htm">Job 19:25</a></div><div class="verse">For I know <i>that</i> my redeemer liveth, and <i>that</i> he shall stand at the latter <i>day</i> upon the earth:</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 25.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">For I know that my Redeemer liveth</span>. Numerous endeavours have been made to explain away the mysterious import of this verse. First, it is noted that a goel is any one who avenges or ransoms another, and especially that it is "the technical expression for the avenger of blood" (Froude, 'Short Stories,' vol. 1. p. 284) so often mentioned in the Old Testament. It is suggested, therefore, that Job's real meaning may be that he expects one of his relatives to arise after his death as the avenger of his blood, and to exact retribution for it. But unless in the case of a violent death at the hands of a man, which was not what Job expected for himself, there could be no avenger of blood. Job has already expressed his desire to have a <span class="accented">thirdsman</span> between him and God (<a href="/job/9-32.htm">Job 9:32-35</a>), which thirdsman can scarcely be other than a Divine Personage. In <a href="/job/16-19.htm">Job 16:19</a> be has declared his conviction that" his <span class="accented">Witness</span> is in heaven." In ver. 21 of the same chapter he longs to have an <span class="accented">advocate</span> to plead his cause with God. In <a href="/job/17-3.htm">Job 17:3</a> he calls upon God to be <span class="accented">Surety</span> for him. Therefore, as Dr. Stanley Leathes points out, "he has already recognized God <span class="accented">as his Judge</span> his <span class="accented">Umpire</span> his <span class="accented">Advocate</span> his <span class="accented">Witness</span> and his <span class="accented">Surety</span> in some cases by formal confession of the fact, in others by earnest longing after, and aspiration for, some one to act in that capacity." After all this, it is not taking a very long step in advance to see and acknowledge in God his Goel, or "Redeemer." <span class="cmt_word">And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;</span> rather, <span class="accented">and that at the last he shall stand up over my dust.</span> <span class="hebrew">אַחַדון</span> is not "one who comes after me;" but, if a noun, "the last <span class="accented">one</span>" <span class="accented">as</span> <span class="hebrew">רִאשׁון</span> is "the first one "(<a href="/isaiah/44-6.htm">Isaiah 44:6</a>); if intended adverbially, "at the last" - <span class="accented">i.e</span>, at the end of all things. "At the latter day" is not an improper translation. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-26.htm">Job 19:26</a></div><div class="verse">And <i>though</i> after my skin <i>worms</i> destroy this <i>body</i>, yet in my flesh shall I see God:</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 26.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">And though after my skin worms destroy this body</span>. The supposed ellipsis of "worms" is improbable, as is also that of "body." Translate, <span class="accented">and after my skin has been thus destroyed -</span> "thus" meaning, "as you see it before your eyes." <span class="cmt_word">Yet in my flesh shall I see God</span>; literally, from <span class="accented">my flesh</span> - scarcely, as Renan takes it, "without my flesh," or "away from my flesh" - "prive de ma chair;" but rather, "from the standpoint of my flesh " - "in my body," not "out of my body" - shall I see God. This may be taken merely as a prophecy of the theophany recorded in ch. 38-42. (see especially <a href="/job/42-5.htm">Job 42:5</a>). But the nexus with ver. 25, and the expressions there used - "at the last," and "he shall stand up over my dust" - fully justify the traditional exegesis, which sees in the passage an avowal by Job of his confidence that he will see God "from his body" at the resurrection. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-27.htm">Job 19:27</a></div><div class="verse">Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; <i>though</i> my reins be consumed within me.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 27.</span> <span class="accented"><span class="cmt_word">-</span> Whom I shall see for myself</span>. Not by proxy, <span class="accented">i.e.</span> or through faith, or in a vision, but really, actually, <span class="accented">I</span> shall see him <span class="accented">for myself.</span> As Schultens observes, an unmistakable tone of exultation and triumph pervades the passage. <span class="cmt_word">And mine eyes shall behold, and not another</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> "not the eyes of another." I myself, retaining my personal identity, "the same true living man," shall with my own eyes look on my Redeemer. Though <span class="cmt_word">my reins be consumed within me</span>. There is no "though "in the original. The clause is detached and independent, nor is it very easy to trace any connection between it and the rest of the verse. Schultens, however, thinks Job to mean that he is internally consumed by a burning desire to see the sight of which he has spoken. (So also Dr. Stanley Leathes.) </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-28.htm">Job 19:28</a></div><div class="verse">But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 28.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">But ye should say, Why persecute we him?</span> rather, <span class="accented">if ye shall say</span> <span class="accented">How shall we persecute him?</span> That is to say, "If, after what I have said, ye continue bitter against me, and take counsel together as to the best way of persecuting me, then, <span class="cmt_word">seeing the root of the matter</span> (<span class="accented">i.e.</span> the essence of piety) is found in me, be ye afraid," etc. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/19-29.htm">Job 19:29</a></div><div class="verse">Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath <i>bringeth</i> the punishments of the sword, that ye may know <i>there is</i> a judgment.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 29.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Be ye afraid of the sword</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> "the sword of God's justice, which will assuredly smite you if you persecute an innocent <span class="accented">man."</span> <span class="accented"><span class="cmt_word"></span>For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword</span>; rather, <span class="accented">for wrath is among the transgressions of the sward</span>; <span class="accented">i e.</span> among the transgressions for which the sword is the fit punishment. It is "wrath" which leads Job's "comforters" to Persecute him. That ye may know there is a judgment; or, <span class="accented">so that ye will know there is a judgment</span> When the blow comes upon them they will recognize that it has come upon them on account of their ill treatment of their friend. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> </div></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. 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