2. How long, &c.—retorting Bildad's words (Job 18:2). Admitting the punishment to be deserved, is it kind thus ever to be harping on this to the sufferer? And yet even this they have not yet proved. read more
The hostility of Job’s accusers 19:1-6Job began this reply to Bildad as Bildad had begun both of his speeches: "How long . . .?" (Job 19:2; cf. Job 8:2; Job 18:2). How long would his friends torment him? The ten times (Job 19:3) may have been ten actual occurrences, not all of which the writer recorded, or Job may have used ten as a round number meaning often. Job claimed that God had not been just in his case (Job 19:5-6; cf. Job 8:3). Rather than snaring himself in his own net, as Bildad... read more
4. Job’s second reply to Bildad ch. 19This speech is one of the more important ones in the book, because in it, Job reached a new low and a new high in his personal experience. He revealed here the extent of his rejection by his friends, relatives, and servants, but he also came to a new confidence in God. Bildad had spoken of the terrors of death, and now Job described the trials of life, his own life. He did so by using seven figures to describe himself: an animal trapped (Job 19:6), a... read more
Job’s Fifth SpeechIn this speech Job repeats his bitter complaints of God’s injustice, and man’s contemptuous abandonment of one formerly so loved and honoured. He appeals in broken utterances to his friends to pity him; then from them he would fain appeal to posterity, wishing that he might engrave in the rock a declaration of his innocence, sure that those who read it in the after-time would feel the ring of sincerity and exonerate him of guilt. But, baffled by the callous unbelief of his... read more
XIX.(2) How long?—Job begins as Bildad himself had begun in both cases. His last speech had been so offensive and unfeeling that Job may well ask “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?” Moreover, Bildad had infused a kind of personal malice into his charges, which Job felt most keenly, so that he is constrained to ask, “If indeed I have erred, doth not my error remain with myself? I alone suffer for it, and ye do not even sympathise or suffer with me.” read more
Job 19:9-10 Compare the use of this passage by Scott in the affecting interview between Jeanie Deans and her sister, when the latter ( Heart of Midlothian, chap. xx.) upbraids herself for having forgotten 'what I promised when I faulded down the leaf of my Bible. "See," she said, producing the sacred volume, "the book opens aye at the place o' itsell. O see, Jeanie, what a fearfu' scripture!" Jeanie took her sister's Bible, and found that the fatal mark was made at this impressive text in the... read more
XVI."MY REDEEMER LIVETH"Job 19:1-29Job SPEAKSWITH simple strong art sustained by exuberant eloquence the author has now thrown his hero upon our sympathies, blending a strain of expectancy with tender emotion. In shame and pain, sick almost to death, baffled in his attempts to overcome the seeming indifference of Heaven, the sufferer lies broken and dejected. Bildad’s last address describing the fate of the godless man has been deliberately planned to strike at Job under cover of a general... read more
CHAPTER 19 Job’s Reply to Bildad 1. How long will ye vex my soul? (Job 19:1-6 ) 2. And I am not heard! (Job 19:7-12 ) 3. Forsaken of men he pleads to be pitied (Job 19:13-24 ) 4. Faith supreme (Job 19:25-27 ) 5. The warning to his friends (Job 19:28-29 ) Job 19:1-6 . Bildad’s scathing speech did not bring Job into the dust. He acknowledges the words vexed his soul and broke him in pieces, but he does not change his viewpoint. He repudiates the guilt with which they charged him and... read more
JOB'S REPLY TO BILDAD (vv.1-6). Though Job did not lose his temper at the unjust accusations of Bildad, he shows here that the reproaches of his friends have struck deeply into his soul. "How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words?" (v.2). He is appealing to the fact that the best he can say of their words is that they are unfair. Ten times they had reproached him. Should they not be ashamed that they had actually wronged him? They had accused him of evil without... read more
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Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Job 19:1-29
Job’s reply to Bildad (19:1-29)Again Job rebukes his friends and rejects their assertion that his sufferings prove he must be a great sinner. Even if he has sinned, he argues, that is no concern of theirs (19:1-4). As Job sees things, he has not been wicked, but God has made it look as if he has by placing him in this humiliating situation (5-6). God has used his power against Job and Job can do nothing about it. He feels helpless (7-12). Relatives, friends and servants have all turned against... read more