Job 19:6-22

Job Complains of the Neglect he Suffers

v. 6. Know now that God hath overthrown me, wresting him, treating him without proper regard for the justness of tile case, and hath compassed me with His net, like a wild beast which is so wound up in the meshes of the hunter's net that it cannot move.

v. 7. Behold, I cry out of wrong, crying out in complaint over the violence which he was experiencing, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment, God will not vindicate his just cause, nor will his friends impartially examine and decide his case.

v. 8. He hath fenced up my way, hedging it up so closely that there is no passage, that I cannot pass, and He hath set darkness in my paths, making it impossible for Job to continue his way.

v. 9. He hath stripped me of my glory, the honor which his righteousness had formerly given him before men, and taken the crown, namely, that of his good name, from my head. Cf Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 42:3.

v. 10. He hath destroyed me on every side, like a building doomed for destruction, which is razed to the ground, and I am gone, both his prosperity and his health having been taken from him; and mine hope hath He removed like a tree, tearing it out, uprooting it entirely.

v. 11. He hath also kindled His wrath against me, like a forest-fire, which devours everything in its path; and He counteth me unto Him as one of His enemies, regarding and treating him as the representative of all His foes and therefore concentrating all His hostility upon him.

v. 12. His troops come together, the armies of God, the calamities and sufferings advance, and raise up their way against me, erecting bulwarks as they proceed to their attack, and encamp round about my tabernacle, besieging him on every side.

v. 13. He hath put my brethren far from me, driving his nearest kinsmen away from him, and mine acquaintance, his very bosom friends, are verily estranged from me.

v. 14. My kinsfolk, his house associates, those who lived with him under the same roof, have failed, remained away from him in his present misery, and my familiar friends have forgotten me, those whose confidence and respect he had formerly enjoyed.

v. 15. They that dwell in mine house, the sojourners who partook of Job's hospitality, and my maids, all his hired servants, count me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight, an outsider, a man hailing from a strange country.

v. 16. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, treating his master with such contempt that he calmly ignored his call; I intreated him with my mouth, where formerly a beckoning nod was sufficient, Job was now obliged to beg for any service which he wished to have performed.

v. 17. My breath is strange to my wife, the evil odor of his festering ulcers had caused his wife to turn from him with loathing, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body, that is, the stench of his wounds had driven away also other relatives, probably grandsons, Job speaking of his great wretchedness in general terms.

v. 18. Yea, young children, wicked youngsters, rude and impudent mockers, despised me, he had become a target of mockery on every side; I arose, and they spake against me, if he did arise to assert his former influence and authority, they made him the butt for their coarse jokes.

v. 19. All my inward friends, his bosom friends, who enjoyed his confidence, abhorred me; and they whom I loved are turned against me. the reference being undoubtedly to the friends who had so openly spurned and attacked him.

v. 20. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, he was wasted away to such a degree that his bones showed through his skin and his flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth, his gums at least not yet having been attacked by the fearful malady, so that he could still speak.

v. 21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me, namely, in this terrible plague with which he was afflicted. He begs for a show of pity, since he is already suffering with the fearful disease, apparently the punishment of an angry God.

v. 22. Why do ye persecute me as God, why should they assume divine authority in adding their persecution to that which the Lord had laid upon him, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Though they were gnawing at his very life with the tooth of suspicion and slander and thus devouring his very flesh, they did not yet seem to be satisfied, but were continuing their persecutions and increasing Job's agony. It is the way of officious meddlers to continue their boring with bland and torturing persistence, thus adding to the misery of the afflicted.