Job 19:13 - Exposition

He hath put my brethren far from me . Job had actual "brothers" ( Job 42:11 ), who forsook him and "dealt deceitfully" with him ( Job 6:15 ) during the time of his adversity, but were glad enough to return to him and "eat bread with him" in his later prosperous life. Their alienation from him during the period of his afflictions he here regards as among the trials laid upon him by God. Compare the similar woe of Job's great Antitype ( John 5:5 , "For neither did his brethren believe on him"). And mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me (comp. Psalms 38:11 ; Psalms 69:9 ; Psalms 88:8 , Psalms 88:18 ). The desertion of the afflicted by their fair-weather friends is a standing topic with the poets and moralists of all ages and nations. Job was not singular in this affliction.