BOOK 18 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Job 19

Job book home•Chapter 19 of 42•29 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Job 19 Overview

Job asks how long his friends will torment him with words. He describes abandonment by relatives, servants, acquaintances, and intimate friends, and pleads for pity. In the middle of this isolation he declares that his Redeemer lives and that after his body is destroyed he will yet see God.

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19Chapter

29Verses

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Before you read Job 19

Coming from

Bildad had just portrayed the wicked as cut off and forgotten, language that closely matched Job’s experience.

In this chapter

Job rejects the friends’ interpretation, describes total social abandonment, and expresses a powerful hope in a living Redeemer and future sight of God.

Leads into

Chapter 20 brings Zophar’s second speech, again insisting that the triumph of the wicked is brief.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The Hebrew concept behind “redeemer” carries the idea of a vindicating kinsman or defender. Job expects a living Redeemer who will stand at the latter day and expects personally to see God beyond bodily destruction. Later revelation in Christ gives the fullest answer to these hopes.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Human abandonment does not erase the possibility of divine vindication.

Truth 2

Job’s hope has moved beyond recovering present prosperity to seeing God after bodily destruction.

Truth 3

The chapter holds intense grief and strong resurrection-shaped hope together.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Psalm 16:10-11 and Daniel 12:2 contribute to Old Testament hope beyond death.

Connection 2

1 Corinthians 15 announces bodily resurrection as fulfilled through Christ.

Connection 3

1 Timothy 2:5 and Hebrews 7 present Christ as the living mediator and intercessor, illuminating Job’s longing for a heavenly defender.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not reduce Job 19:25-27 to a mere hope that his reputation will improve before death; Job explicitly speaks of seeing God after bodily destruction.

Keep this clear 2

At the same time, do not force every later New Testament detail into Job’s vocabulary as though he possessed the entire revealed doctrine.

Keep this clear 3

Job’s plea for pity should be read before using his Redeemer statement as an isolated slogan.

Read Job 19 watching for…

How often Job names people who have abandoned him.

His plea, “Have pity upon me.”

The shift from social isolation to confidence in a living Redeemer.

The expectation of seeing God.

Job’s warning that his friends also should fear judgment.

Chapter outline6 sections

1-6Job tells his friends that their repeated reproaches have broken him 7-12Job describes feeling fenced in, stripped, and attacked by God 13-20Job says relatives, servants, friends, and even children have turned away from him 21-22Job pleads with his friends to have pity on him 23-27Job declares that his redeemer lives and that he will see God 28-29Job warns his friends to fear the judgment of the sword

Then Job answered and said,

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

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Job 19:1

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