Job 19:19-29

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 19:8-22

Bildad had very disingenuously perverted Job's complaints by making them the description of the miserable condition of a wicked man; and yet he repeats them here, to move their pity, and to work upon their good nature, if they had any left in them. I. He complains of the tokens of God's displeasure which he was under, and which infused the wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery. How doleful are the accents of his complaints! ?He hath kindled his wrath against me, which flames and... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 19:23-29

In all the conferences between Job and his friends we do not find any more weighty and considerable lines than these; would one have expected it? Here is much both of Christ and heaven in these verses: and he that said such things as these declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly; as the patriarchs of that age did, Heb. 11:14. We have here Job's creed, or confession of faith. His belief in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:19

All my inward friends abhorred me ,.... Or "the men of my secret" F13 מתי סודי "viri secreti mei", Montanus; "homines secreti mei", Cocceius, Schmidt; "viri arcani mei", Beza, Mercerus; "homines arcani mei consilii", Michaelis. ; who were so very familiar with him, that he imparted the secrets of his heart, and the most private affairs of life, unto them, placing so much confidence in them, and treating them as his bosom friends; for this is always reckoned a great instance of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:20

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh ,.... Or, "as to my flesh" F15 בעורי ובבשרי "cuti meae ut carni meae", Tremellius, in one edition of his version. , as Mr. Broughton and others render the words; as his bones used to stick to his flesh, and were covered with it, now his flesh being consumed and wasted away with his disease, they stuck to his skin, and were seen through it; he was reduced to skin and bone, and was a mere skeleton, what with the force of his bodily... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:21

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me ,.... Instead of calumny and censure, his case called for compassion; and the phrase is doubled, to denote the vehemence of his affliction, the ardency of his soul, the anguish of his spirits, the great distress he was in, and the earnest desire he had to have pity shown him; and in which he may be thought not only to make a request to his friends for it, but to give them a reproof for want of it: O ye my friends ; as they once showed themselves to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:22

Why do ye persecute me as God ,.... As if they were in his stead, or had the same power and authority over him, who is a sovereign Being, and does what he pleases with his creatures, and is not accountable to any for what he does; but this is not the case of men, nor are they to imitate God in all things; what he does is not in all things a warrant to do the like, or to be pleaded and followed as a precedent by them; they should be merciful as he is merciful, but they are not to afflict and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:23

O that my words were now written !.... Not his things F17 מלי "res meae", Polychronius apud Pinedam in loc. , as some render it, his affairs, the transactions of his life; that so it might appear with what uprightness and integrity he had lived, and was not the bad man he was thought to be; nor the words he had delivered already, the apologies and defences he had made for himself, the arguments he had used in his own vindication, and the doctrines respecting God and his providence... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:24

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! Or "that they were written with an iron pen and lead, that they were cut or hewn out in a rock for ever"; not with both an iron and leaden pen, or pencil; for the marks of the latter are not durable, and much less could it be used on a rock according to our version; but the sense seems to be, that they might be written with an iron pen, which was used in writing, Jeremiah 17:1 ; upon a sheet of lead, as the Vulgate Latin... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:25

For I know ,.... The particle ו , which is sometimes rendered by the copulative "and", by an adversative "but", and sometimes as a causal particle "for", should not be rendered here by either; but as an explanative, "to wit", or "namely", as it is by Noldius F25 ואני "nempe ego", Nold. Ebr. Concord. Partic. p. 696. No. 1750. ; in connection with the preceding words; in which Job wishes some words of his were written in a book, or engrossed on sheets of lead, or were cut out on some... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 19:26

And though after my skin worms destroy this body ,.... Meaning not, that after his skin was wholly consumed now, which was almost gone, there being scarce any left but the skin of his teeth, Job 19:20 ; the worms in his ulcers would consume what was left of his body, which scarce deserved the name of a body, and therefore he points to it, and calls it "this", without saying what it was; but that when he should be entirely stripped of his skin in the grave, then rottenness and worms... read more

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