21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
21 "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
21 "Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me!
21 "Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me!
21 "Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of God has struck me.
4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up
4 The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude
(Read Psalm 32:3-7)
It is very difficult to bring sinful man humbly to accept free mercy, with a full confession of his sins and self-condemnation. But the true and only way to peace of conscience, is, to confess our sins, that they may be forgiven; to declare them that we may be justified. Although repentance and confession do not merit the pardon of transgression, they are needful to the real enjoyment of forgiving mercy. And what tongue can tell the happiness of that hour, when the soul, oppressed by sin, is enabled freely to pour forth its sorrows before God, and to take hold of his covenanted mercy in Christ Jesus! Those that would speed in prayer, must seek the Lord, when, by his providence, he calls them to seek him, and, by his Spirit, stirs them up to seek him. In a time of finding, when the heart is softened with grief, and burdened with guilt; when all human refuge fails; when no rest can be found to the troubled mind, then it is that God applies the healing balm by his Spirit.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 19:21
Commentary on Job 19:8-22
(Read Job 19:8-22)
How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the friendship of men! but if God be 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 in itself. Job recommends himself to the compassion of his friends, and justly blames their harshness. It is very distressing to one who loves God, to be bereaved at once of outward comfort and of inward consolation; yet if this, and more, come upon a believer, it does not weaken the proof of his being a child of God and heir of glory.