21 Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me. 22 Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?
23 Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven? 24 With a pen of iron and lead—For ever in a rock they may be hewn. 25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise. 26 And after my skin hath compassed this 'body', Then from my flesh I see God: 27 Whom I—I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom. 28 But ye say, 'Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me. 29 Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious 'are' the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that 'there is' a judgment.
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Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 19:21-29
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.
Commentary on Job 19:23-29
(Read Job 19:23-29)
The Spirit of God, at this time, seems to have powerfully wrought 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 that said such things are these, declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly. Job was taught of 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 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, quickening, 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 fixedness 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.