Matthew Henry Commentary Job 19
Matthew Henry Commentary
Job 19
Matthew Henry Commentary
Job 19
"Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me: Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me. And be it indeed that I have erred, Mine error remaineth with myself. If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach; Know now that God hath subverted me [in my cause], And hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice." — Job 19:1-7 (ASV)
Job's friends blamed him as a wicked man because he was so afflicted; here he describes their unkindness, showing that what they condemned was capable of excuse. Harsh language from friends greatly adds to the weight of afflictions; yet it is best not to lay it to heart, lest we harbor resentment. Rather, let us look to Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and was treated with far more cruelty than Job was, or we can be. (Job 19:8–22)
"He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head. He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone; And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, And he counteth me unto him as [one of] his adversaries. His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent. He hath put my brethren far from me, And mine acquaintance are 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 for 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 mine 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 upon 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?" — Job 19:8-22 (ASV)
How sorrowful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God? Seared consciences will feel it in the afterlife, but do not fear it now; enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it in the afterlife. It is a very common mistake to think that God treats those whom He afflicts as His enemies.
Every creature is to us what God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relatives and friends. How uncertain is the friendship of men! But if God is our Friend, He will not fail us in time of need. What little reason we have to indulge the body, which, after all our care, is consumed by diseases it has within itself.
Job appeals to the compassion of his friends and justly blames their harshness. It is very distressing to one who loves God to be deprived at once of outward comfort and inward consolation; yet if this, and more, befalls a believer, it does not weaken the proof that he is a child of God and an heir of glory.
"Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock for ever! But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last he will stand up upon the earth: And after my skin, [even] this [body], is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see God; Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me. If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me; Be ye afraid of the sword: For wrath [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, That ye may know there is a judgment." — Job 19:23-29 (ASV)
The Spirit of God, at this time, seems to have powerfully worked on the mind of Job. Here he witnessed a good confession, declared the soundness of his faith, and the assurance of his hope. Here is much of Christ and heaven; and he who said such things as these declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly one. Job was taught by God to believe in a living Redeemer, to look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come; he comforted himself with the expectation of these.
Job was assured that this Redeemer of sinners from the yoke of Satan and the condemnation of sin was his Redeemer, and he expected salvation through him; and that he was a living Redeemer, though not yet come in the flesh; and that at the last day he would appear as the Judge of the world, to raise the dead, and complete the redemption of his people. With what pleasure holy Job enlarges upon this!
May these faithful sayings be engraved by the Holy Spirit upon our hearts. We are all concerned to see that the root of the matter be in us. A living, life-giving, commanding principle of grace in the heart, is the root of the matter; as necessary to our religion as the root of the tree, to which it owes both its stability and its fruitfulness. Job and his friends differed concerning the methods of Providence, but they agreed in the root of the matter, the belief of another world.
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