Job 19:1 - Meaning and Application

Job’s friends had judged him very harshly, as if he were a wicked man because he was suffering so deeply. Here Job tells them how painful that judgment was to him. Bildad had twice started with the words “How long?” (Job 8:2, Job 18:2), and now Job answers him the same way in Job 19:2. When people dislike what they hear, it often feels long to them. But Job had more reason to feel that his friends were being long and tiring than they had to feel that he was, since he was only defending himself. There is often more reason to speak in our own defense, if we are right, than to attack others, even when we think we are right.

Job first describes their cruelty toward him. They grieved his soul, and that is worse than pain in the body (Psalm 6:2, 6:3). They were his friends. They came to comfort him and claimed they were advising him for his own good. Yet, with a show of wisdom and piety, they tried to take away the little comfort he still had in God, in his own conscience, and in his good name. That cut him deeply. They also broke him apart with words, and those must have been very hard and cruel words to have such an effect. Since their words hurt him so much, there will be a reckoning for all the hard things spoken against Christ and his people (Jude 1:15).

They also shamed him, giving him a bad name and blaming him for things he did not know anything about. To an honest heart, reproach cuts deeply. They made themselves strangers to him. When trouble came, they acted shy toward him and treated him as if they did not know him, unlike the way they had been with him in his better days (Job 2:12). People are ruled by the spirit of the world, not by true honor or love, when they turn away from their friends, or from God’s friends, in hard times. A friend loves at all times. They did more than withdraw from him. They also lifted themselves up against him (Job 19:5), looking down on him and insulting him when he was already down. It is a shameful thing to trample on someone who has fallen.

They also used his suffering against him. They treated his trouble as proof that he was wicked. They should have spoken for his integrity and helped him hold on to the comfort of it under suffering, as Paul did when he appealed to his clear conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12). Instead, they turned his reproach into an argument against his innocence. That was not only unkind, it was deeply unfair. If reproach can be used as proof against a person, then no honest man is safe.

Job then makes their unkindness seem even worse. They had done this many times, he says, “these ten times” (Job 19:3), meaning very often, as in (Genesis 31:7) and (Numbers 14:22). He speaks as if he had kept count of every insult. That kind of remembering usually comes from a peevish and unfriendly spirit, and it sounds like revenge. We protect our own peace better by forgetting injuries than by storing them up. They also kept going. They seemed determined to continue, as Job says, “How long will you torment me?” (Job 19:2, Job 19:5). Those who speak too much rarely think they have said enough. When anger opens the mouth, reason often no longer gets a hearing. Worst of all, they were not ashamed. They had reason to be ashamed of their hard hearts, their lack of kindness, and their broken friendship. But even after being corrected again and again, they could not blush.

Job answers their severe criticism by showing that what they condemned could be excused, and they should have thought about that. Even if he had made errors in judgment, those errors were forgivable (Job 19:4). He says, in effect, “Suppose I have been wrong through ignorance or mistake.” That can happen to any person, even a good one. It is human to err. We should be ready to admit that about ourselves, because it is foolish to think we never make mistakes. But Job adds, “My error remains with myself.” In other words, “I speak as best I know how, honestly, and not out of stubbornness. If I am wrong, I keep that wrong to myself and do not force it on others the way you do. I am only testing myself and my own work. I am not meddling in other people’s matters, either to teach them or judge them.” Errors are easier to bear when people keep them to themselves and do not trouble others with them. If you have faith, keep it to yourself. Another way to read his words is this: “If I am in error, I must suffer for it myself, so you do not need to make things worse. In fact, I am already suffering heavily because of it.”

Even Job’s angry complaints were understandable, though not right, because of his great grief and misery. If they wanted to criticize every complaining word he spoke, they should still consider the cause behind the complaint before they judged him. “Know then that God has overthrown me,” he says (Job 19:6). Job wants them to think about three things. First, his trouble was very great. He had been overthrown and could not help himself. He was trapped like a man caught in a net and unable to get free. Second, God was the one who had brought this upon him, and in it God seemed to be fighting against him. It was God’s hand that had overthrown him, and God’s net that held him. So his friends should not set themselves against him as well. He already had enough to deal with in struggling with God’s displeasure. Let God’s own case against him be settled before they begin theirs. It is cruel to keep hurting the one God has already struck and to speak to the grief of one whom he has wounded (Psalm 69:26). Third, Job could find no relief or hope of redress (Job 19:7). He cried out because of wrong, but no one answered. He complained of pain and got no ease. He wanted to know the reason for his suffering, but he could not find it. He appealed to God’s court to clear his innocence, but he got no hearing, much less a judgment in his favor. God may, for a time, seem to turn away from his people, to be angry at their prayers, and to ignore their appeals. In such a case, they must be forgiven if they speak bitterly. Woe to us if God is against us!