Job 19:21-27 | KingComments | STEP | Job has reached the nadir of the description of his situation. He makes a heartbreaking appeal to those he emphatically calls “my friends” to have pity on him ( ; cf. ). He particularly needs their help now that God’s hand has hit him so hard (Job 1-2). That hand still rests heavily on him, without giving him a reason for it. He yearns for them to help him bear the suffering. Now it is still the case for Job that they persecute him and behave toward him as God behaves toward him ( ). When will they be saturated with his flesh? When they see him, should it not dawn on them how much he suffers? Is this not sufficient reason to stop tormenting him with their accusations, making his suffering all the greater? Job is so sure that he suffers innocently that he wishes his words to be written down and inscribed in a book ( ). Then future generations will be able to read his defense. He is convinced that they will come to the conclusion that his accusers are wrong and he really is innocent. He also wants them, in addition to being inscribed in a book, to be “engraved in the rock with an iron stylus and lead forever” ( ). After all, a book can perish or be lost, but what is engraved in a rock and filled with lead is very durable and remains legible for a long time. In this way he wants to lift his ‘right’, the testimony about his innocence and the injustice done to him, over his death. What Job desires has been done in a much more convincing way than he proposes. His words have been taken up by God in His Word, the eternal Word. Only that did not happen as he intended it to record his innocence forever, but to teach us about God’s dealings with a man to whom He wishes to reveal Himself. Job’s words come from the desire to defend his sincerity. Thus he has defended his words before ( ). They are also a direct answer to Bildad’s harsh words that his memory will perish on earth and that his name will be extinct ( ). Both Job and Bildad know the truth of the words of wisdom: “The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot” ( ). Job clings to the first part, Bildad uses the second part for Job.

‏ Job 19:21-27

The Supplication for Pity

Job has reached the nadir of the description of his situation. He makes a heartbreaking appeal to those he emphatically calls “my friends” to have pity on him (Job 19:21; cf. Job 6:14). He particularly needs their help now that God’s hand has hit him so hard (Job 1-2). That hand still rests heavily on him, without giving him a reason for it. He yearns for them to help him bear the suffering.

Now it is still the case for Job that they persecute him and behave toward him as God behaves toward him (Job 19:22). When will they be saturated with his flesh? When they see him, should it not dawn on them how much he suffers? Is this not sufficient reason to stop tormenting him with their accusations, making his suffering all the greater?

Job is so sure that he suffers innocently that he wishes his words to be written down and inscribed in a book (Job 19:23). Then future generations will be able to read his defense. He is convinced that they will come to the conclusion that his accusers are wrong and he really is innocent.

He also wants them, in addition to being inscribed in a book, to be “engraved in the rock with an iron stylus and lead forever” (Job 19:24). After all, a book can perish or be lost, but what is engraved in a rock and filled with lead is very durable and remains legible for a long time. In this way he wants to lift his ‘right’, the testimony about his innocence and the injustice done to him, over his death.

What Job desires has been done in a much more convincing way than he proposes. His words have been taken up by God in His Word, the eternal Word. Only that did not happen as he intended it to record his innocence forever, but to teach us about God’s dealings with a man to whom He wishes to reveal Himself.

Job’s words come from the desire to defend his sincerity. Thus he has defended his words before (Job 7:7-11 ; Job 10:1 ; Job 13:3 ; 13-14). They are also a direct answer to Bildad’s harsh words that his memory will perish on earth and that his name will be extinct (Job 18:17). Both Job and Bildad know the truth of the words of wisdom: “The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot” (Pro 10:7). Job clings to the first part, Bildad uses the second part for Job.

The Triumph of Faith

Then in these verses we suddenly see another ray of light of Job’s faith. Instead of being engraved in a stone rock on earth, Job now seeks it higher up by the Living Rock. He speaks of a Redeemer, Whom he very personally calls “my Redeemer” (Job 19:25). His rock (Job 19:24) is his Redeemer. In Hebrew the word “I” is emphasized at the beginning of the verse. It shows Job’s firm conviction: ‘I, yes I, know.’

The word “lives” is more than “being alive”. It implies that the Redeemer will continue His work to establish Jobs’ sincerity and to justify him from the charges against him. This is also contained in the words of Job in the last verses of this chapter.

In two previous chapters (Job 9; 16) where Job expresses his deep bitterness toward God, he also spoke of the Person Whom he calls here “Redeemer”. In Job 9 he notices the absence of that Person: “There is no umpire between us” (Job 9:33), including the question: “If only there was one.” In Job 16 he pronounces that this Person is Someone Who knows and looks after His cause: “My witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high” (Job 16:19). Here in Job 19 this grows to the conviction that He is a living Redeemer, Someone Who gives Him all that belongs to Him: “I know that my Redeemer lives.”

Job has more in mind here than just Someone Who will testify to his sincerity. In Job 16 he sees himself as a victim of murder when he shouts: “O earth, do not cover my blood” (Job 16:18). He is counting on his Savior, his Goel, to testify for him, but also to do him justice. He knows that God will do this after his death. He does not yet know that God will do him justice on earth. That makes his statements statements of faith.

The Hebrew word for ‘redeemer’ is goel. Depending on the context, this word is also translated as ‘blood avenger’. The word is important in the Old Testament jurisprudence. It has an aspect relating to crime and an aspect relating to civil relations. As the ‘blood avenger’, the goel had the responsibility to avenge the blood of a killed family member (Num 35:12-28). He was not seeking vengeance, but justice. The redeemer or goel, also restores lost rights or loss of property. He upholds justice (Lev 25:25-34).

Regarding the civil aspect, the goel had the responsibility to “repurchase” and thereby redeem the lost inheritance of a deceased family member. This could be done by buying free from slavery or by marrying the widow to provide for an heir. As such, he was the defender of the oppressed, as we see in the book of Ruth (Rth 4:1-10; Pro 23:10-11). In the exodus and at the exile, God is the Goel of His oppressed people (Exo 6:6; Isa 43:1). As the Goel the LORD frees persons from death (Psa 103:4).

Because his Redeemer lives, Job also knows that this Redeemer “at the last … will take His stand on the earth [literally: dust]”. This means that He will exercise His dominion over all matter, including man, who is dust. “Take His stand” means to move in order to take action. The Redeemer will rise up and come to earth to restore everything and do justice everywhere.

Job expects to die and that of his body in the grave nothing will remain (Job 19:26). When he dies he is stripped of his skin. However, even though his skin is gone, he will see God from his flesh. Here it appears that Job has faith in the resurrection. Here he speaks as his conviction the truth of a literal, bodily resurrection. With his statement about the resurrection Job ‘plants the flag of victory on his own grave’. David also spoke about the resurrection (Acts 2:31). The believers in the Old Testament know that there is a resurrection (Psa 17:15; Isa 38:11-19).

In addition to his faith in the resurrection, he also believes that he will then see God. He will not hear God speak His decision in favor of him from a distance, but he will stand face to face with God in a glorified body. He will see God in the face of Jesus Christ Who is the image of God. Sickness and the grave will consume his body, but that is not the end of his existence. He says, as it were, what David later says: “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake” (Psa 17:15).

He himself shall behold God with His own eyes (Job 19:27). It is that God Whom he now experiences as Someone Who is against him. At the same time he knows of that God that He is his God. There is no other God. God is the God on Whom he has always trusted, even though he is in despair about His dealings with him. He knows God and God knows him. Job will be no other person, no stranger, someone kept at a distance because he has no relationship with God. God is also no other God than the God he has served on earth.

His longing is not for the recovery of his health, the liberation from all his troubles and the return to his former prosperity and well-being, to all that God has ever given him. He knows that this is unattainable, he does not believe in it. What he longs for is what is greater than all earthly prosperity, and that is God Himself. That desire is so great that it causes his heart to faint within him. It indicates the intense and total longing of all that is within him. At the end of the book this longing is fulfilled already in a sense, while he receives in addition what he didn’t ask for.