Job 19:1–7, 23–29, KJV 

1 Then Job answered and said, 2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

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What is Job’s mood at this point? His three friends cannot see that the sufferer’s sin might not cause suffering. Consequently, Job tries to tell them that he is sure from his personal experience that this is not so. Do you think someone remains sick because they lack faith? This is the same situation—we need to be careful not to judge the heart of another or how God is working in their lives. God does not always heal, and He often allows suffering to come into our lives to strengthen us. The Apostle Paul had some physical disability or sickness. He asked God three times to heal him, but God refused and said His power was perfect through Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7–9). In other words, because Paul had this disability, people were more apt to give glory to God for Paul’s ministry than to credit Paul himself.

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Job is often credited with patience, but this is not the case. Job perseveres despite it all, but he is not feeling very patient! “How long?” he asks. The Hebrew is ‘ad (ad), almost like asking if it will last forever. Job seems to be feeling angry here—do you blame him? All three of his friends are ganging up against him. They are trying to vex and break him into pieces with their words. “Break” in Hebrew is daka’ (dah-KAH), which literally means to crush into powder. This is not used here in the literal, physical sense, but a psychological sense of the physical sense, a psychological sense of humiliation or oppression. 

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Job says that his so-called friends have tried ten times to accuse him. He is not literally counting the number of times with his ten fingers, but this is a Hebrew idiom meaning many times and completely, and Job is saying that it is too many times to accuse a friend. And so he basically asks, “Are you not ashamed to abuse me?” They are not succeeding in making Job feel ashamed, but they should feel ashamed for treating him this way.

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

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Scholars have interpreted this verse in a variety of ways. “With myself ” (Heb. ’itti, ee-TEE) is an emphatic expression; in other words, it is as if Job had underlined it. So, the most logical interpretation is that Job says he alone is responsible to God for his own sin. This is something that his friends could neither see nor understand. No one else can see what transpires between Job and the Lord. If Job has sinned, his sin is not hurting his friends; it only hurts Job, so he thinks they should stop bothering him. By using the word “erred” (Heb. shagah, shah-GAH), Job is intimating a smaller sin, probably done in ignorance, not the huge sin that would be expected to bring on the great suffering that Job is enduring.

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

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Job’s accusers act as if they are his moral superiors—they magnify themselves. They think they are pure because God is not punishing them. A “reproach” (Heb. kherpah, kher-PAH) is a condition of disgrace in which Job feels treated like a terrible sinner.

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

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Job feels that God has unjustly caused his suffering, which makes Job’s friends view him as a great sinner, which he finds humiliating. The word “overthrown” (Heb. ‘avath,ah-VATH) means to bend or pervert the cause of someone or something. Job thinks that God has ruined his reputation as an upright man. He says that God has compassed or surrounded him with a net, like a hunter catching his prey.

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

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The picture here is like the person being assaulted in broad daylight, but no one listens to their cries for help. In this case, Job is crying out for God’s help, but seemingly, God has His ears shut. Job is not accusing God of being unjust. He is just complaining that he has not received a fair and equitable response from God; God is not answering.

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23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

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Job desires retribution, but it certainly is not happening. He wishes that the facts of his life could be written down for the future—so it could be seen that he is not guilty of horrendous sins. First, he thinks of the facts being written down in a scroll, the book format of his day. Then, he thinks he desires a permanent record, inscribed in stone with the letters filled in with lead so that in the future, it can be seen that he is innocent. God answers Job’s desire in far greater ways than Job could ever imagine. The story of his suffering and godly life is recorded in the book of Job, and many more are reading it than were even alive on earth in his days. You and I know of his innocence, and even more importantly, God was watching the pain of every boil on his body, the holes in his heart for every one of his dead children, and the hurtful words of his closest friends. God saw his suffering as well as his righteousness. And yes, a permanent written record was made of his suffering, and it is the book of Job in our Bibles!

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25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

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Have you heard the “Messiah” sung recently and been thrilled to hear the words, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”? Old Testament believers still need to fully understand the idea that we will go to live in heaven with the Lord after we die. In the book of Job, we don’t see that Job firmly believed that he would go to heaven when he died. But in these verses, Job is speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the wonderful truth that he would someday see his living Redeemer. Old Testament prophets often spoke of things they didn’t fully understand, especially in the references to Jesus, our Messiah. But with this statement, we seem to see a turning in Job’s attitude—yes, in the end, God will vindicate him.

A redeemer (Heb. ga’al, gah-ALL) in Israelite society was the next of kin and had certain responsibilities and privileges, such as buying back family property that had been lost as a result of indebtedness, marrying a widow, avenging, delivering, purchasing, ransoming, and redeeming. David spoke of God being his Redeemer (Psalm 19:14), and so did Isaiah (44:6), and it is certainly in this sense that Job speaks of his Redeemer. Only God could vindicate him of his sins. And since Job expects to die soon, he saw the only hope of God declaring him innocent as happening after he died. So, if God vindicated Job after he died, would that really help him? Job expresses in these verses the belief that even though worms would eat his physical body as it lay in the grave, his physical body would also be resurrected, and he would be face to face with his Redeemer.

We read the word “reins” in the KJV and wonder what this is referring to. This is how the KJV translates the Hebrew word kilyah (keel-YAH), which refers to the kidneys, viewed as the seat of the emotions. The NIV translation renders this: “How my heart yearns within me!” Particularly as we get older or as we experience terminal diseases, the thought that excites us is that we will soon see Jesus.

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28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? 29 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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Now, Job returns to his complaints concerning his so-called friends. We think of the ninth commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Job knows in his heart that he is not guilty of the gross sins his friends are accusing him of. We, too, should remember that whether in a court of law or a whisper of gossip, we should not accuse someone of doing anything wrong unless we have seen it for ourselves, or we will suffer punishment from God. When we get to the end of the book of Job, we will see that God judges the three for their accusations against Job. They had repeatedly harassed an innocent victim. The root of the matter was not found in Job.