Job 19

19:3 The number ten did not represent a specific count but an indefinite large number (e.g., Gen 31:7; Lev 26:26; Num 14:22; Dan 1:20).

19:6 Job was convinced that justice had been delayed (19:7) and that God had wronged him (19:8-12). Later, Elihu (34:12) and God himself (40:2) disagreed. • capturing me in his net: Job might have been responding to Bildad’s accusation (18:8-10).

19:7 Help! (literally Violence!): Cp. Jer 20:8; Hab 1:2-3. • no one answers: See Ps 22:2; Lam 3:8; Hab 1:2-3.

19:8 blocked my way: See 3:23; 13:27; Ps 88:8; Lam 3:7, 9.

19:9 stripped me of my honor: See 12:17-19; 29:7-14, 20.

19:17 my own family: Job might have been referring to his tribal line, his parents, his own children, or his siblings.

19:19 Those I loved have turned against me: See 2:11; also 6:14-15, 21-23, 27; cp. Pss 41:9; 55:12-14, 20.

19:20 escaped death by the skin of my teeth: This is an idiom for a narrow escape; the Hebrew could also mean that Job was reduced to a skeleton with a toothy skull.

19:21 The hand of God had struck Job through the permission he gave to Satan (1:11; 2:5).

19:22 persecute (literally pursue): Job complained that God had tracked him like a hunter (10:16) or a warrior (16:13).

19:23 Job wanted his words . . . inscribed on a monument, not in a book; Job desired a permanent record of his claim to innocence in response to Bildad’s assertion that he would be forgotten (18:17).

19:25 Job’s faith in a Redeemer could find fulfillment only in Christ; the same was true of his request for an advocate (9:33) and a witness in heaven (16:19). The term “Redeemer” (Hebrew go’el) comes from both criminal and civil law. An individual could redeem or avenge wrongful bloodshed (Num 35:12-18) or redeem lost property, perhaps by buying back a slave or marrying the heir’s widow (Lev 25:25, 47-49; 27:11-13; Ruth 3:13). The Old Testament knew the Lord as redeemer (Exod 6:6; Pss 19:14; 103:4; Prov 23:10-11; Isa 43:1 [“ransomed”]; Isa 54:5); New Testament believers know the Redeemer as the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 1:7, 14; Heb 9:12; 1 Pet 1:18). Job wanted his Redeemer to declare his innocence (see Job 1:1 and corresponding study note).

19:26 Job had faith that he would be vindicated even if death came first.

19:27 I will see him for myself: The thought is the same as the psalmist’s in “when I awake” (Ps 17:15). For Job, this hope could only be fulfilled in seeing God at the end of time (Matt 5:8; 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2; Rev 1:7) in transformed flesh (1 Cor 15:43-53; Phil 3:21).

19:29 Given the biblical principles against bearing false witness (13:7-11; see Matt 7:1-2; Jas 4:11-12), Job warned his friends that they should fear God’s judgment. They did eventually face his judgment, but they also received mercy (Job 42:7-8).