Job 19, Painfully Waiting for a Redeemer

Again and again, Job's friends argue that righteousness leads to awards and prosperity and that corruption leads to pain and evil. Thus, they say, Job suffers because he is being punished for his evil.

Job 19:1-6, Why do you attack me

Then Job replied:

"How long will you torment me

 and crush me with words?

Ten times now you have reproached me; 

shamelessly you attack me.

If it is true that I have gone astray, 

my error remains my concern alone.

If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me 

and use my humiliation against me,

then know that God has wronged me 

and drawn his net around me.

Job's defense begins with the Hebrew word an, translated here "How long?" It is the same word with which Bildad began his two speeches. (See Job 8:2 and Job 18:2.) Job echoes Bildad's challenge with a challenge of his own.

Job is being attacked by his "friends" because,  they say, he is sinful and that he knows that he is.  Job's defense, essentially, is that if he is indeed sinful, he is not aware of it, and so the error is really his alone. They are "exalting" themselves over him by making these simplistic accusations.

Job 19:7-12, Blocked

"Though I cry, `I've been wronged!' 

I get no response; 

though I call for help, 

there is no justice.

He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;

 he has shrouded my paths in darkness.

He has stripped me of my honor 

and removed the crown from my head.

He tears me down on every side till I am gone; 

he uproots my hope like a tree.

His anger burns against me;

 he counts me among his enemies.

His troops advance in force; 

they build a siege ramp against me 

and encamp around my tent.

God has blocked Job at every turn, says Job. And he, Job, has no solution.

As Hartley points out, Job's complaint in verse 8, that God has hedged him in so that he is trapped echoes the complaint of The Accuser (in Job 1:10) that God had hedged Job in so that nothing bad could happen to him. 

Compare verse 9, "He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown..." with Psalm 8:5, where mankind is crowned with glory and honor.

In Job 14:7, Job argues that at least trees get to send up new shoots and grow again; here in verse 10 Job goes further, saying that if his hope is like a tree then it has been completely uprooted.

Job 19: 13-20, Offensive to all

"He has alienated my brothers from me; 

my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

My kinsmen have gone away; 

my friends have forgotten me.

My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger;

 they look upon me as an alien.

I summon my servant, but he does not answer, 

though I beg him with my own mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife;

 I am loathsome to my own brothers.

Even the little boys scorn me; 

when I appear, they ridicule me.

All my intimate friends detest me; 

those I love have turned against me.

I am nothing but skin and bones; 

I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

At every turn, Job is ignored, estranged, viewed as offensive.  No one supports him! (What a painful -- and very depressing -- place to be!) 

There are echoes here of David's despair in Psalm 88.

Job 19:21-22, Pity please

"Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, 

for the hand of God has struck me.

Why do you pursue me as God does? 

Will you never get enough of my flesh?

And so, Job begs, please, friends, at least you should have pity on me?

Job 19:23-24, Recorded

"Oh, that my words were recorded, 

that they were written on a scroll,

that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, 

or engraved in rock forever!

Unaware of the dialogue in Heaven, Job wishes that his complaint, his grievance, would be recorded, would be made public. Since papyrus or leather decays, those in the ancient Near East carved words into stone if they wanted them to be permanent. (We have such stele from the ancient Near East.) Job wants something like that to record his complaint.

Job 19:25-27, Redeemer

I know that my Redeemer lives, 

and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed, 

yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him with my own eyes--

I, and not another. 

How my heart yearns within me!

Suddenly, without warning, we have a surprising and very strong statement. Job expects to see his living Redeemer, even after his (tortuous) skin has been destroyed. The Hebrew word for "redeemer" is gaal (or go'el); Naomi and Ruth sought a "redeemer" in Bethlehem (eg. Ruth 4:1.) This word, says Hartley, is deeply rooted in Hebrew theology. The author of Job could have used other words (says Hartley) but chose this one because of its association with YHWH. (See, for example, Isaiah 43:1-7.) Apparently Job claims that God will redeem him from God's attacks!

In his argument, Job expects to eventually see this redeemer with his own eyes, even after his flesh is destroyed.  There is little in the Old Testament that speaks to a Jewish belief in a later resurrection of the body; this verse probably comes closest to making that claim.

Job 19:28-29, Be careful!

"If you say, `How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,'

you should fear the sword yourselves; 

for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, 

and then you will know that there is judgment."

"Be careful!" Job warns, "Your accusations may rebound to you!"