Job 19:13

IN HIS LAMENTATION; JOB APPEALED TO HIS FRIENDS

"He hath put my brethren far from me,

And mine acquaintance is wholly estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed,

And my familiar friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in my house, and my maids count me as a stranger:

I am an alien in their sight.

I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,

Though I entreat him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife,

And my supplication to the children of my own mother.

Even young children despise me;

If I arise, they speak against me.

All my familiar friends abhor me,

And they whom I loved are turned against me.

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,

And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

Have pity on me, have pity upon me, O ye, my friends;

For the hand of God hath touched me.

Why do ye persecute me as God,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?"

"He hath put my brethren far from me" (Job 19:13). "Yes, Job had actual brothers (Job 6:15) who forsook him and dealt deceitfully with him in the days of his adversity. But in the days when his prosperity returned they ate bread with him (Job 42:11)."[5] In this particular we find another likeness of the Great Antitype whose brethren believed him not (John 6:5).

"I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer" (Job 19:16). This was astounding insolence indeed; and in view of the times in which this occurred, it was almost incredibly insulting. Satan really went all-out in his vain efforts to break Job's spirit. "Job's humiliation here was already complete when the slave was `entreated,' rather than `commanded.'"[6]

"Have pity upon me; have pity upon me, O ye my friends" (Job 19:21). Where are there any sadder words than these? These cruel, heartless, bigoted, hypocrites, arrogant in their conceited confidence that they `knew all the answers,' proceeded to judge Job, as if they were God Himself. No wonder Christ said, "Judge not, that ye be not judged with the same condemnation" (Matthew 7:1).

"Why do ye persecute me as God" (Job 19:22). This does not mean that Job accused God of persecuting him. He protests his friend's persecution of him, as if they were God, assuming to know that which only God could know, and condemning Job upon this presumed superknowledge they pretended to have.