Job 19
Names of God Bible
Job Speaks: Admit That God Is Mistreating Me
19 Then Job replied to his friends,
2 “How long will you torment me
and depress me with words?
3 You have insulted me ten times now.
You’re not even ashamed of mistreating me.
4 Even if it were true that I’ve made a mistake without realizing it,
my mistake would affect only me.
5 If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me
by using my disgrace as an argument against me,
6 then I want you to know that Eloah has wronged me
and surrounded me with his net.
7 Indeed, I cry, ‘Help! I’m being attacked!’ but I get no response.
I call for help, but there is no justice.
What God Has Done to Me
8 “Eloah has blocked my path so that I can’t go on.
He has made my paths dark.
9 He has stripped me of my honor.
He has taken the crown off my head.
10 He beats me down on every side until I’m gone.
He uproots my hope like a tree.
11 He is very angry at me.
He considers me to be his enemy.
12 His troops assemble against me.
They build a ramp to attack me
and camp around my tent.
13 “My brothers stay far away from me.
My friends are complete strangers to me.
14 My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming.
My house guests have forgotten me.
15 My female slaves consider me to be a stranger.
I am like a foreigner to them.
16 I call my slave, but he doesn’t answer, though I beg him.
17 My breath offends my wife.
I stink to my own children.
18 Even young children despise me.
If I stand up, they make fun of me.
19 All my closest friends are disgusted with me.
Those I love have turned against me.
20 I am skin and bones,
and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Have pity on me, my friends!
Have pity on me because Eloah’s hand has struck me down.
22 Why do you pursue me as El does?
Why are you never satisfied with my flesh?
Job’s Confidence in His Defender
23 “I wish now my words were written.
I wish they were inscribed on a scroll.
24 I wish they were forever engraved on a rock
with an iron stylus and lead.[a]
25 But I know that my Go’el lives,
and afterwards, he will rise on the earth.
26 Even after my skin has been stripped off my body,
I will see Eloah in my own flesh.
27 I will see him with my own eyes,
not with someone else’s.
My heart fails inside me!
Job Warns His Friends
28 “You say,
‘We will persecute him!
The root of the problem is found in him.’
29 Fear death,
because your anger is punishable by death.
Then you will know there is a judge.”
Footnotes
- Job 19:24 The order of the lines has been reversed because the English equivalent is difficult.
Job 19
New Catholic Bible
Job’s Fifth Response[a]
Chapter 19
God Has Wronged Me.[b] 1 Job then answered with these words:
2 “How much longer will you torment me
and oppress me with your words?
3 You have reproached me now ten times,
and you mistreat me shamelessly.
4 And even if it were true that I have erred,
the fault would be completely mine.
5 “If indeed you want to exalt yourselves above me
and use my humiliation against me,
6 know that God has wronged me
and cast his net over me.
7 Even when I protest that I have been wronged,
no one comes forward to support me,
and I receive no justice when I cry out for help.
8 “He has blocked my path so that I cannot pass,
and he has shrouded my way in darkness.
9 He has deprived me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He assails me on every side until I succumb;
he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 He has inflamed his anger against me
and looks upon me as his enemy.
12 His troops move forward as a single force;
they have surrounded me with siegeworks
and encamped around my tent.
13 “He has caused my brethren to turn against me;
my friends are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives and my companions now ignore me,
and those who were guests in my house have forgotten me.
15 Even my serving girls regard me as a stranger;
I have become an alien in their eyes.
16 When I summon my servant, he does not respond,
no matter how much I plead with him.
17 “My wife finds my breath repulsive;
my stench is loathsome to my relatives.
18 Even young children despise me;[c]
when I approach, they turn their backs on me.
19 All of my dearest friends abhor me;
those I love have turned against me.
20 I have become just skin and bones
and have escaped with only my gums.[d]
21 “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,
for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Must you pursue me just as God does?
Will not my flesh ever be enough to satisfy you?[e]
I Know That My Redeemer Lives[f]
23 “How I wish that my words might be written down
and inscribed on a scroll!
24 How I wish that with an iron chisel and with lead
they were engraved in stone forever!
25 “But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the end he will stand upon the dust.
26 After my awakening, he will call me close to him,
and then from my own flesh I will see God.
27 I will see him with my own eyes;
my eyes, not those of another, will behold him.
How my heart within me yearns for that moment!
28 “As for you who say,
‘How we will persecute him,
for the root of the trouble lies in him,’
29 beware of the sword that is pointed toward you,
for the avenger of wickedness is the sword,
and then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”
Footnotes
- Job 19:1 Though persecuted by God and condemned by humans, Job remains certain that he will someday see his cause triumphant and God himself acting as his defender.
- Job 19:1 Job is not going to justify himself before his friends any longer; it is the justice of God and not his own that is at issue. Job lets forth an ardent lamentation, an appeal for pity.
- Job 19:18 Even young children despise me: this fact was a great embarrassment in a patriarchal society, which insisted that its elders be respected and honored (see Ex 20:12).
- Job 19:20 The translation of this verse is uncertain. Most commentators believe it means “I am nothing and possess nothing except my skin and bones.”
- Job 19:22 To eat someone’s flesh meant to mistreat him and especially to slander him (see Ps 27:2).
- Job 19:23 This is regarded as the best-known and most-beloved passage in the Book of Job as well as the culmination of Job’s understanding of his situation and his relationship with God. At the end of his life, Job is convulsed by a cry of hope, which he utters like a challenge, and also by the prospect of meeting his God, whom he will really see with his own eyes (Job 42:5).
God is Job’s defender; originally, a goel was a close relative of somebody slain, who had to avenge that relative’s blood, raise up a posterity to the dead man’s wife, and redeem his property. Job, therefore, expects a liberation.
The Vulgate Latin translation interpreted this as resurrection of the body after death. The direct meaning of the Hebrew text may be extended, in a Christian perspective, to include the resurrection, but the Book of Job does not perceive this so clearly.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.
