Job's Reply to Bildad's Second Speech
Chapter 19
Job complains of his friends' cruelty (19:1-5)
Bildad had twice begun with a How long (Job 8:2, 18:2), so Job, addressing him, began with a How long too (v. 2). What is not liked is commonly thought long; but Job had more reason to think those long who assaulted him than they had to think him long who only vindicated himself. Better cause may be shown for defending ourselves, if we have right on our side, than for offending our brethren, though we have right on our side.
His friends added to his affliction:
- They tormented his soul: with affectation of wisdom and piety, his friends were undermining the only comfort he had now left him in a good God, a good conscience, and a good name; and this was a torment to his soul.
- They broke him in pieces with words: their hard and cruel words grieved him, and so shattered him. This reminds us of Jude 1:14-19, where, citing a prophecy by Enoch, we are told that the Lord will come to execute judgement among all, among other things to convict sinners of all the harsh things they have spoken against Him.
- They reproached him very often: they gave him a bad character and accused him of things that he hadn't done ten times, which means often. Each of the five speeches so far had been a double reproach. To an ingenuous mind reproach is a cutting thing.
- They were not ashamed that they had wronged him: they had been hardhearted, uncharitable, and deceitful towards Job, of which they ought to have been ashamed after hearing the truth which Job had told them.
- In another translation it reads that they made themselves strange to him: they were shy of him now that he was in trouble. Those who turn away from their friends when they are in trouble are ungodly and false. A friend loves at all times.
- Whether Job had erred or not was no concern of theirs: whatever the assumed error, it remained with him. They should not make themselves judges of Job. He spoke according to the best of his judgement and not from a spirit of contradiction, and he didn't meddle with other people, either to teach them or to judge them. If in error, it was he who had to pay for it and they need not add to his misery by their reproaches.
- They exalted themselves against him because of his disgrace: they made use of his affliction as an argument against him, and magnified themselves to depress him. It is a mean thing, it is a base thing, to trample upon those that are down in such a way.
It is easy to point out someone else's faults or sins. Job's friends accused him of sin to explain his downfall, and to make him feel guilty, not to encourage or correct him. If we feel we must admonish someone, we should be sure that we have all the facts, and that we are confronting that person because we love him, not because we are annoyed, inconvenienced, or seeking to humiliate him.
Job shows the extent of his misery (19:6-22)
Bildad had said that Job had walked into a net, but Job maintained that:
A) He had not walked into a net, but had been turned upside down (literal translation) and surrounded with a net. He could not get out.
B) It was God who had done this to him and it was His net: it is iniquitous to persecute those God has struck, and to talk of the grief of those God has wounded. (Psalm 69:26).
C) He had no way of getting a fair treatment: if he cried out he wasn't heard, and if he cried aloud there would be no judgement. It may sometimes seem to us that God will not hear our prayers, that we are being unjustly treated and that He is not keeping His promises we are counting on. At such times it will help us to think of Job and the trial he was being subjected to. We can hardly be in a worse position than he was in - and God had a high opinion of him.
Bildad had made of Job's complaints the description of the miserable condition of a wicked man; Job nevertheless repeated them here, to show how severe were the injuries God inflicted on him.
God paralysed him so that he couldn't move forward out of his predicament, and he could not even perceive where he stood and what might be his alternatives.
God had stripped him of his glory: his former prosperity, wealth, honour, power and influence, his children, and any high regard others may have had for him had been laid in the dust. This is the vanity of worldly glory: it may be stripped from us at any time, and we cannot take it with us after we die. It is better to build our treasure in heaven, where nothing can take it away from us.
God continued to destroy him, and he was left with no hope at all. It seemed as if God fought against him and intended his destruction. Hope in this life is a perishing thing, but the hope of believers, when it is cut off like a tree from this world, is of its transplantation into the garden of the Lord in heaven. We shall therefore have no reason to complain if God removes our hopes from temporal earth to eternity in heaven.
In Job's mind God had become his enemy and as in a battle had set his troops against him: He had severed Job's relationship with his brothers, acquaintances, relatives and close friends, and he had become a stranger to those living in his own house: wife, brothers, young children, all those whom he loved had turned against him.
Because of his disease he was little more than skin and bone, so that he was filled with wrinkles (chapter 16:8); he was a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. Even his skin was covered with sores and little remained untouched except the skin of his teeth, by which he probably meant his gums and perhaps his lips.
Job then humbly called upon the compassion of his friends, because God had struck him. It is natural for friends to pity one when he is in trouble. It is most unfriendly of them to add their censures and reproaches to his sufferings.
Job knew he had a Redeemer and would see God in person (19:23-29)
At the heart of the book of Job comes his ringing statement: "I know that my Redeemer lives". His conviction was such that he wished his words were written, inscribed in a book, engraved on a rock, with an iron pen and lead, forever! His wish was granted by God in such a way that we can read his words to this day, about four millennia later! What tremendous faith Job had, especially in light of the fact that he was unaware of the conference between God and Satan. Job struggled with the idea that God was currently against him and thought that God had brought all these disasters upon him! Faced with death and decay, Job still expected to see God - and he expected to do so in his body after death. He had the same faith as the patriarchs of his age and earlier did (Hebrews 11:14), expressed in Psalm 49:15.
The last two verses were warnings to his "friends": if they still wished to persevere with their persecution of Job, they must fear the sword of judgement to come. Job had kept his faith. He believed his Redeemer lived, was coming to justify him, and so he was numbered with the redeemed. They would be punished for their wrath against him, who was the root of the matter.
R David Jones
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.
4 And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me.
5 If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me,
6 Know 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.
8 He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; and He has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
0 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope He has uprooted like a tree.
11 He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies.
12 His 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.
14 My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call my servant, but he gives no answer; I beg him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am repulsive to the children of my own body.
18 Even young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me.
19 All my close friends abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me.
20 My 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!
22 Why 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!
24 That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth;
26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God,
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
28 If you should say, 'How shall we persecute him?' - since the root of the matter is found in me,
29 Be afraid of the sword for yourselves; for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement."