Job 19:23

JOB'S WORDS (ABOUT TO BE UTTERED) ARE OF ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE;

AND HE PRAYED THAT THEY MIGHT BE REMEMBERED FOREVER

"Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a boom

That with an iron pen and lead

They were graven in the rock forever!"

The scholars like to speculate about the kind of book Job was talking about here, but that has nothing to do with the point. These verses prove that Job was about to mention something of eternal import, words that needed to be remembered forever. This prelude to what he said makes any speculation that Job's declaration pertained to anything whatever in his present lifetime impossible to allow. No individual's lifetime could possibly provide the perimeter of the world-shaking Truth to be revealed. The theater in which his words would shine forever encompassed Time and Eternity, and not merely the fleeting days of any mortal's lifetime on earth.

The Good News Bible version erroneously translated Job 19:26, making it read, "While still in this body, I shall see God." This is an example of that which was mentioned by Rowley that, "Some editors emend out of the passage any concept of the resurrection,"[7] that being exactly what the editors of the Good News Bible did here. If that was all that Job meant, there would have been no need whatever for this marvelous prelude.

God honored Job's wishes here for the eternal preservation of his priceless words. "That which Job so passionately wished for in this passage, God was pleased to grant."[8] The sacred words of the Holy Bible record Job's holy words; and that is a far more permanent memorial that any leaded inscription upon the face of some Behistun mountain could possibly have been.