Job 19:27

27. Whom I See note on Job 19:25.

Mine eyes If the sight of God be solely that of the disembodied spirit, as many think, the expression “mine eyes” is superfluous and misleading. The six preceding Hebrew words four times disclose the same thought, that he, the identical person, after death, shall see God. If the sight be not a bodily one, the introduction of “mine eyes” is a solecism, a descent in thought, and a blemish upon the inscription. The eye is the frailest, most delicate, of the members of our physical frame among the first to succumb to decay, and yet it is to be the medium through which the soul shall enjoy the sight of God. If God’s promise cover the eye it suffices for our entire dust.

Behold The Hebrew, exact in the use of his language, employed חזה see (twice above) for mental vision, and for the sight of such objects as were subjected to the mind without the senses, such, for instance, as visions and oracles. (Numbers 24:4; Numbers 24:16; Ezekiel 12:27; Habakkuk 1:1,) while ראה , behold, was used of sight as an act of the senses. “The preterite raou, rendered behold, after the future ‘ I shall see,’ is the perfect of certainty or futurity;” ( Zockler) in like manner Delitzsch, Ewald, etc.

And not another According to Gesenius, Stickel, Hahn, etc., “another” is the object of the verb. Thus Dr. Clarke: “Not a stranger, one who has no relation to human nature, but my redeeming kinsman.” Many others, however, (Zockler, Hengstenberg, etc.,) make another or stranger the nominative of the verb, and read, not a stranger, who would have no interest in the beatific sight, but himself, (now the alien, the rejected of God, then no longer a stranger,) shall behold him in his capacity of divine Goel. The words correlate with “mine eyes.” They are words of ecstatic triumph, and form the transition to the last clause of the inscription.

Though my reins Neither the though of the text nor the when of Conant is justifiable. The reins, which were regarded as the seat of the deepest affections, consume within him (see margin) from intense longing for the realization of such a sight of God. See Excursus ix, p. 285.

Conclusion Inspired by the vision of faith, Job not only ceases to be a supplicant for pity, but faithfully warns his persecutors that continued maltreatment of the unfortunate must provoke the wrath of Heaven, 28, 29.